Via Reuters
The coronavirus might have been spreading in China as early as August last year, according to Harvard Medical School.
This was based on research on satellite images of hospital travel patterns and search engine data. However, China has dismissed the report as "ridiculous".
The research used satellite imagery of hospital parking lots in Wuhan and looked at queries online for symptoms such as 'cough'. According to the research there was an increase in hospital traffic symptom searches before the identifctaiob of the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan.
The research can be viewed here: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42669767
Needless to say, China pretty non-plussed about he research. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, when asked about the research at a daily press briefing said,
"I think it is ridiculous, incredibly ridiculous, to come up with this conclusion based on superficial observations such as traffic volume," she said.
Early cases?
What is interesting is that there are a number of 'early' COVID-19 cases reported. You can read a piece here on the BBC that talks about these early cases. It has got me thinking too as I had a very nasty 'flu' in November last year which developed when I was staying in Kuala Lumpur.
