US scientists report earliest known COVID-19 case a solid proof; next stage should be focused especially on the US: Chinese epidemiologist

  

CHINA / SOCIETY

US scientists report earliest known COVID-19 case a solid proof; next stage shouldbe focused especially on the US: Chinese epidemiologist

 

Next stage virus tracing should be focused on the US: epidemiologist

By GT staff reporters Published: Jun 16, 2021 10:21 PM

   

 

A recent US CDC report found #COVID19 antibodies in blood samples as early as Dec 13, 2019. With more & more evidence surfacing about the coronavirus' origins in places outside China before Wuhan detected it, the world is remapping the history of the #COVID19 pandemic. Infographic:GT

More scientific evidence in countries such as the US and France has emerged to suggest that those countries may have had COVID-19 cases way before they officially confirmed.

A US government study suggested that the coronavirus may have already been circulating among people one month earlier than it was officially confirmed, and French scientists also presented scientific evidence that the country's cases were caused by an indigenous virus strain prevailing before 2020. 

Chinese scientists urged that such evidence should not go unnoticed, and should serve as evidence that the next-stage virus-tracing investigations should be focused on countries which reported cases earlier than they previously identified, especially the US.

A study of more than 24,000 samples taken for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research program in the US between January 2 and March 18, 2020 suggested that seven people in five states - Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - may have been infected well before the country's first confirmed cases that were reported in January 21, 2020. 

The results suggest that the virus may have been circulating in Illinois, for example, as early as in December 24, 2019, one month earlier than the US authorities confirmed. 

The data suggests the virus was in the five states far away from the initial hot spots and areas that were considered its points of entry into the country, the study said.

Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Global Times on Wednesday that the US should be prioritized in the next-stage investigation, as the country was slow to test people at an early stage, and it possesses so many biological laboratories all around the world. "All bio-weapons related subjects that the country has should be subject to scrutiny," Zeng said.

Coronavirus was in US in late 2019, study finds

 Thursday, June 17, 2021, 12:03

Coronavirus was in US in late 2019, study finds

By Ai Heping

 

In this photo healthcare workers prepare a syringe with a vial of the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccination site at Grand Central Terminal train station on May 12, 202 in New York City. (PHOTO / AFP)

A United States government study published on Tuesday suggests that the coronavirus was infecting people in the US before causing a deadly outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The outbreak hit Wuhan, Hubei province in late 2019. Officially, the first US infection to be identified was a Washington state man who returned from Wuhan on Jan 15 that year and sought help at a clinic on Jan 19.

The study's results suggest that the virus may have been circulating in Illinois, for example, as early as Dec 24, 2019, although the first case in that state was confirmed a month later.

The study was published online by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases and was conducted by a team including researchers at the National Institutes of Health. They analyzed blood samples from more than 24,000 people across the country. The samples were collected in the first three months of 2020 as part of a long-term NIH research program called All of Us that seeks to track 1 million people in the US over the years to study Spokesman: US should work with WHO in tracing virus, the way China did their health.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the daily news briefing that the study proves once again that tracing the origin of the virus is a complicated scientific issue involving different countries and places

COMPLEX CHINA -- Inside the Global Times, China’shawkish, belligerent state tabloid

COMPLEX CHINA

Inside the Global Times, China’shawkish, belligerent state tabloid

By Zheping HuangAugust 9, 2016

A Global Times logo at its Beijing office.

Beijing

Hong Kong’s best film of 2015 is a “virus of the mind.” Taiwan’s push for independence means war with China is inevitable. The international tribunal ruling on the South China Sea is a US-backed trap to discredit China. Australia is nothing but a “paper cat.” Donald Trump and Brexit prove Western democracy is dangerous.

China’s most belligerent tabloid, the Global Times, is certainly a one-of-a-kind publication. The Chinese- and English-language news outlet is published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) paramount mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, but it goes much further than China’s typically stodgy state news. The Global Times is best known for its hawkish, insulting editorials—aggressive attacks that get it noticed, and quoted, by foreign media around the world as the “voice” of Beijing, even as the party’s official statements are more circumspect.

That’s not exactly a mistake, the paper’s longtime editor says.

The Global Times often reflects what party officials are actually thinking, but can’t come out and say, editor-in-chief Hu Xijin explained during a long interview with Quartz in his drab Beijing office in the People’s Daily compound. As a former army officer and current party member, Hu said, he often hangs out with officials from the foreign ministry and the security department, and they share the same sentiments and values that his paper publishes. “They can’t speak willfully, but I can,” he said.

After starting in China, the Global Times has been expanding its footprint, bringing its unvarnished opinions around the globe. It rolled out a US edition in 2013, and a South Africa one in 2014. On July 7, the Global Times launched its Europe edition in a typically in-your-face manner—by mocking Britain’s Brexit, and Europe’s fears of China’s growing influence:

QUARTZ/ZHEPING HUANG

The Global Times’ take on Brexit.

There are plenty of people who condemn the saber-rattling tone, both inside and outside China. But the Global Times’ importance as one tool to understand the growing nationalism in Beijing is undeniable, experts say. “Even if you don’t like it, you’ll probably have to read what it says,” said Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

The evolution of the Global Times