When did the coronavirus pandemic that has now lasted for more than a year really start? If until now it was thought that COVID-19 appeared at the very end of 2019, various theories suggested that the first cases appeared much earlier, and thus, the possibility that the virus started to spread without us noticing it.
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According to the latest revelations from TheWall Street Journal, this hypothesis may well be confirmed.
Lab workers infected as early as November?
On Sunday, May 23rd, the American newspaper revealed the latest findings of the American intelligence services. According to their report, laboratory workers in the city of Wuhan, China, the starting point of the epidemic, showed serious symptoms of COVID-19 and were hospitalised as early as November 2019.
These elements do not match the official version provided by China. According to the government, the virus was transmitted naturally from animals to humans. The first case of COVID-19 dates back to December 1st, 2019, the first hospitalisation to December 16th, and the first death to January 11th, 2020. This version is supported by the WHO.
The investigation will continue
So which version is correct? The US intelligence version or the Chinese/WHO version? In the United States, people are still convinced of the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory. At the beginning of May, Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden's advisor on the pandemic, announced that he wanted to continue the investigation to understand what really happened.
This approach is supported by the American scientific community, which wrote in an article published on May 14th in Science magazine:
We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimise the impact of conflicts of interest.
Pangolins must be happy to no longer be singled out as the source of the COVID-19 pandemic as we wait for the truth to come out!
