Covid-19, or as many of us know it as Coronavirus, first came onto the scene in later 2019 where a majority of people that got the virus were in China. The virus first started in Wuhan, China, and then evolved around the world and now it’s currently known as a worldwide pandemic. This was unavoidable as a lot of people may think it was, the virus was always going to hit everywhere one way or another, whether it be from travel or not, the virus is now in the world and could stay for the foreseeable future. The virus is currently killing over 3,000 people a day with a lot of people recovering from it and a vaccine is in development, however, was this virus here before anyone knew about it?
China was researching whether the virus hit them before the virus was first known since France found out that their first case of Covid-19 was in December, almost a month or 2 from when it was said to of been in Europe! Scientists have said that the virus could have been here as early as August last year, however China dismissed that and said that it was “ridiculous” to think that. This could be true, however, giving how fast the virus spreads and how quickly people have been infected by it! The research begins at Harvard Medical School and they carried out a bunch of satellite images of hospital car parks in Wuhan, China. This was where Covid-19 was first spotted and data shows that symptom-related queries were on search engines such as cough and diarrhoea. The reason why some people may think that the virus started sooner, is because, from August 2019, the car park in Wuhan was packed, this could suggest that the virus was earlier than we think!
“I think it is ridiculous, incredibly ridiculous, to come up with this conclusion based on superficial observations such as traffic volume.” said China’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
Knowing that the virus could have been spotted sooner is bad enough but this data could suggest that the virus only spread this fast because people had it before it was discovered. This could mean Europe could have had it before January and even December. All and all there will be more research into this topic and see when the virus really started out. All the scientists know is that the virus started in Wuhan, China from Bats! More and more discoveries about the virus are being made each and every day, new symptoms and more! Follow the NHS guidelines.
