A number of studies show that the epidemic of the new coronavirus in Italy is earlier than Wuhan
◎Reporter Zhang Jiaxing
"In the biological samples in 2019, some countries have reported traces of the new coronavirus." The World Health Organization said in a statement issued not long ago that the next phase of research should include the investigation of potential cases in countries in 2019, such as the WHO It has already cooperated with Italy.
Why does the WHO call on countries to try to "turn over the old papers" among the 2019 cases?
Because many countries have detected the new coronavirus in these cases, and they are all earlier than Wuhan!
For example, the WHO specifically mentioned Italy in the statement, but there is more than one!
Italy: There has been a wave of infection peaks around October 2019
At the beginning of 2020, the rapid spread of the new coronavirus in Italy, the rapid growth of confirmed cases, and the early emergence of local cases all made local scientists suspect that the new coronavirus had spread locally at least a few months ago, but it was not detected.
For example, Italy entered a state of emergency at the end of January 2020 and adopted preventive and control measures. However, 20 days later, the epidemic in northern Italy still suddenly began to spread rapidly.
It can be seen that the new coronavirus has been secretly prevalent earlier, and it has been diagnosed and treated as other diseases.
At first, HIV infection was regarded as Kaposi's sarcoma, and poliovirus infection was regarded as congenital disability...
Scholars have promoted the tracing of the new coronavirus from the retained samples of other types of patients.
In November 2020, "Oncology" published the study "Unexpected!" by scholars of the Italian National Cancer Research Center.
Antibodies to the new coronavirus were detected before the Italian pandemic. Researchers found antibodies to the new coronavirus in the blood samples of lung cancer patients retained.
What's more convincing is that in the neutralization experiment with live viruses, multiple antibodies from October 2019 showed the ability to destroy live viruses.
The researchers also analyzed the infection trends and distribution areas of positive patients. The data showed that there was a wave of infection peaks in Italy around October 2019, and more than one-tenth of the samples showed antibodies in the early stages of infection.
Most of the patients who showed positive came from the Lombardy region of Italy, which coincides with the most severely affected area in Italy.
It may be that the impact factor of publications is not high, and it may also be difficult for people to change their preconceived opinions. This research did not receive enough attention at the time, and thus did not play a role as a "milestone" in virus traceability.
Italy proves again: the new crown virus will be epidemic in the summer of 2019
Digging for the truth often involves twists and turns, as long as you don't give up.
A heavier real hammer appeared a few months later-the study of "the molecular evidence that the new crown virus was prevalent in Lombardy, Italy in the late summer of 2019 in skin rash samples" was sent to The Lancet earlier this month.
The study tested samples including oropharyngeal swabs, urine, and serum, and the results showed that the new coronavirus had appeared in the late summer of 2019 and then spread.
What's more powerful is that it gives "iron proof"!
"Nucleic acid testing is very important. It intuitively gives a positive result, and at the same time it has antibody evidence, and it is a large cohort study, not a sporadic case. The evidence is very solid." Domestic virus traceability expert, Life Science and Technology of Beijing University of Chemical Technology Tong Yigang, the dean of the college and the Chinese leader of the Animal and Environment Group of the China-World Health Organization New Coronavirus Traceability Joint Research Expert Group, told Science and Technology Daily that this research may lead to changes in the cognition of the traceability of the new coronavirus in the future and also expand the scope of traceability.
Due to the highly degradable nature of RNA, samples that can be tested for nucleic acid are very rare. They are all stored in the -80°C sample library of the University of Milan Biological Laboratory in Italy, only to be "still in the shelf life" two years later.
And for people infected with the new coronavirus, the oropharyngeal swab can only be tested positive for nucleic acid at the early stage of the infectious virus infection.
All these make it harder to find the "iron proof" of nucleic acid than to find a needle in a haystack, but this research has done it, and the industry believes that it has obtained strong scientific evidence.
WHO: Let a third-party team review
Regardless of the time period or the epidemic area, the conclusions of the two independent studies are highly consistent: in the late summer of 2019, the new crown virus has been secretly circulating in Italy.
The heavyweight "real hammer" discovered and repeatedly verified in scientific research also shocked the World Health Organization.
In the statement, the WHO stated that it has carried out a third-party evaluation of the Italian research results, and the international experimental team will conduct a blind test on the samples.
The research experience of the Italian research team has inspired research teams around the world: There will be amazing discoveries in the -80℃ biological sample library!
To this end, the WHO specifically calls on scientists around the world to have a new understanding of the traceability of the new coronavirus in more early cases in 2019.
Because the data obtained by scientific research is the "real hammer" for virus traceability.
The WHO stated that it has cooperated with many countries that previously reported the early results of virus traceability, and Italy is one of them.
In fact, more and more evidence from scientific research shows that in the months before the discovery of the new coronavirus in Wuhan, it had spread outside of China.
In November 2019, skin samples with viral RNA detected in Italy.
In the same month, the virus was detected in Brazilian wastewater samples.
From December 13, 2019 to January 17, 2020, archived samples of routine blood donations from 9 states in the United States tested positive for the new coronavirus.
France also used antibodies to detect indirect evidence of infection in 2019...
The WHO has called for finding the origin of a new virus to be a time-consuming and difficult scientific task that requires the cooperation of all countries.