A groundbreaking study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has uncovered evidence that COVID-19 may have been present in the United States as early as December 2019, preceding the first documented case by several weeks.
Published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the research supports earlier findings indicating that the virus was circulating in the U.S. during the initial months of 2020. Scientists at the NIH found that a volunteer from Illinois, who donated blood on January 7, 2020, tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. Given that antibodies typically develop within two weeks of infection, this suggests that the virus could have been present in Illinois as early as late December 2019.
The first officially reported COVID-19 case in the U.S. was confirmed on January 20, 2020, in Washington state, involving a patient who had traveled from Wuhan, China. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not recognize community spread of the virus until February 26, highlighting a significant gap between the virus's likely arrival and its official acknowledgment.
This new evidence sheds light on the early timeline of the pandemic in the United States, offering a clearer picture of how and when the virus began to spread within the country. As researchers continue to analyze this data, it underscores the importance of early detection and response in managing infectious disease outbreaks.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
