Wuhan was the epicenter of origin of the new coronavirus epidemic in China (File)
London:
The coronavirus may have spread to China as early as August of last year, according to Harvard Medical School research based on satellite images of hospital travel patterns and search engine data, but China has dismissed the report as “ridiculous”.
The research used satellite images of the parking lots of Wuhan hospitals – where the disease was first identified in late 2019 – and data for symptom-related queries on search engines for things like “cough” and diarrhea”.
“The increase in hospital traffic and symptom search data in Wuhan preceded the documented start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in December 2019,” the research found.
“Although we cannot confirm whether the increase in volume was directly related to the new virus, our evidence supports other recent work showing that the emergence occurred before the identification on the market of Huanan Seafood (at Wuhan). “
The research can be viewed: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42669767
“These results also support the hypothesis that the virus emerged naturally in southern China and was potentially already in circulation at the time of the Wuhan cluster,” the research said.
It showed a strong increase in the occupation of hospital car parks in August 2019.
“In August, we identify a unique increase in searches for diarrhea that has not been seen in previous flu seasons or reflected in cough research data,” the research said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, when asked about the research at a daily press briefing on Tuesday, rejected the findings.
“I think it is ridiculous, incredibly ridiculous, to reach this conclusion based on superficial observations such as the volume of traffic,” she said.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
