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New research found that the discovery of the new coronavirus in the United States was several weeks earlier than the official timeline.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)A new study showsAs early as December 2019, the new crown virus has appeared in several states in the United States, and it is spreading at a low level. This is a few weeks earlier than the first confirmed case of the new crown currently officially reported (January 2020).
A paper published by the National Institutes of Health on “Clinical Infectious Diseases” on Tuesday (June 15) showed that earlier new crowns were found in five US states (Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) Evidence of virus infection.
NIH’s research involves serum samples from 24,000 people in 50 states in the United States from January 2 to March 18, 2020. To avoid false positives and ensure the accuracy of the test, the researchers used two different serological testing methods to find that the samples of 9 participants were positive.
The earliest time for these positive samples to appear is January 7, 2020, from participants in Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The researchers looked for IgG antibodies in participant samples, which appeared about two weeks after the individual was infected, indicating that participants with these antibodies had been exposed to the virus at least a few weeks before sampling. That is: the new crown virus appeared in these states in late December 2019.
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Scientific research continues to push forward the timeline of the emergence of the new coronavirus, which brings the public closer to the traceability of the new coronavirus. But the issue of tracing the source of the political game between China and the United States is no longer a mere scientific issue.
“Antibody testing of blood samples helped us better understand the spread of the new crown virus in the early stages of the new crown epidemic in the United States. At that time, the new crown detection capacity was limited and public health officials could not see that the new crown virus had spread beyond the recognized initial entry point.” The lead author of the study, Dr. Keri N. Althoff, associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, said.
The paper wrote in the introduction: “Among the first 12 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the United States, the earliest confirmed symptoms of the new coronavirus appeared on January 14, 2020. All 12 cases have traveled to mainland China, or Close contacts of travelers. Testing for the new coronavirus in the United States will begin in mid-January 2020.”
At that time, the US government only recommended testing for symptomatic people who had travel history or had direct contact with travelers.
The researchers said that these findings indicate that the anti-epidemic policy at that time led to the omission of cases.
Research limitations
This is a long-term project called “All of Us”, which aims to track and study the health of 1 million volunteers.
The study authors pointed out several limitations. Although the study covers samples from all over the United States, the sample size in many states is very low. In addition, the authors are not sure if the participants whose samples were positive were infected during travel or in their own community.
Ideally, this research can be replicated in other populations, using samples collected in the first few months of the outbreak of the new crown in the United States, and using multiple testing platforms to compare the results.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, as of June 16, the new crown virus has caused 33.48 million infections and more than 600,000 deaths in the United States.
The origin of the new crown virus: BBC News Night investigates the theory of leakage in Wuhan laboratory
Traceability of New Coronavirus
This is not the only study that challenged the official timetable for the emergence of the new coronavirus in the United States given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The agency initially set the onset of the new crown virus for three weeks from mid-January to early February 2020. The first known infection was a man who traveled back to Washington State from Wuhan, China on January 15. Including a study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in December 2020, the new coronavirus appeared in the United States at the end of 2019.
Scientific research continues to push forward the timeline of the emergence of the new coronavirus, which brings the public closer to the traceability of the new coronavirus. But the issue of tracing the source of the political game between China and the United States is no longer a mere scientific issue.
The US media earlier quoted an intelligence agency report saying that after three personnel from the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill and were sent to hospital for treatment in November 2019, China and the United States again fought fiercely over the “laboratory leak” of the new crown virus. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticized the United States for “continuously hyping the theory of laboratory leaks.”