Study: Coronavirus reached US as early as December 2019

• A recent study confirmed the findings of other research that suggests that the novel coronavirus reached the US as early as December 2019.
• A small number of infections may have already occurred in the country before news of the virus in China circulated.
• Studies that analyzed blood samples from thousands of Americans suggested that there were a few individuals who have been infected before the first officially reported case.

The novel coronavirus may have reached the US and caused a small number of COVID-19 infections as early as December 2019, according to a recent study that confirmed previous speculations.

Natalie Thornburg, the principal investigator of the respiratory virus immunology team of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), clarified, “There was probably very rare and sporadic cases here earlier than we were aware of. But it was not widespread and didn’t become widespread until late February.”

The emergence of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China was reported in late 2019. The first official case in the US was a Washington state man who arrived from Wuhan on Jan. 15 and made a medical consultation on Jan. 19.

The start of the US outbreak was initially reported as a three-week window from mid-January to early February. But later research has since suggested earlier cases.

A CDC-led study, published in December 2020, analyzed 7,000 samples from American Red Cross blood donations and found potential cases as early as the middle of December 2019.

The new study’s team, which includes researchers at the National Institutes of Health, analyzed blood samples from 24,000 Americans collected in the first three months of 2020.

Upon looking for antibodies found in infected individuals, nine study participants — five from Illinois, and one each from Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — were found to have been infected earlier than official state reports.

Lead author and Associate Professor Keri Althoff of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said that one of the Illinois cases was infected as early as Christmas Eve.

Researchers in both studies used several types of tests to minimize false-positive results. Still, distinguishing antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2 from other antibodies that fight other strains of coronaviruses, including some that cause the common cold, is difficult.

So, it may still be possible that the 2019 positives in both studies were caused by other coronaviruses and not the COVID-19 strain.

William Hanage, a Harvard University expert on disease dynamics, said that the new findings are “entirely plausible” but not “necessarily strong enough evidence.”

NIH researchers have yet to find out if the study participants traveled out of the country before their infection. Still, the nine did not live near New York City or Seattle, where the first wave of US cases came from.

While the exact cause and location is still unknown, the new study suggested that “it probably seeded in multiple places in our country,” Althoff added.

The latest study was published online on Tuesday by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Source: Aol.com