The first case in China was a saleswoman

The first case of Covid-19 identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan was actually that of a female vendor working at the city’s animal market, not of a man who had never seen it, a report from the World Health Organization explains. These are the results of the research published by the American virologist Michael Worby, Thursday (18), and published in a study in the scientific journal. Science.

According to the scientist, the data associated with the analysis The first cases of Covid-19 in the cityIt turns out that the origin of the virus may have been animal. Since the beginning of the pandemic, experts have discussed the emergence of SAR-CoV-2, in the absence of conclusive evidence. Worobey also belongs to a group of 15 experts who have published an article in the journal. Science, In mid-May, I asked the scientific community to verify the hypothesis of a laboratory leak in the Chinese city, where the epidemic began.

According to the virologist, his research “provides strong evidence in favor of the origin of the epidemic from a live animal” in this market. According to him, health authorities warned of suspected cases of disease linked to the site as of December 30, 2019, which led to the identification of more infections in the market than elsewhere.

To analyze the correctness of the information, Worobey analyzed notifications sent by two hospitals before the alert was issued. However, these cases are closely related to the market and its surroundings.

Dates do not match

“In a city of 11 million people, half of the first cases are associated with a place the size of a field football‘, stressed Worobey in an interview with the newspaper The New York Times. “It is very difficult to explain this trend if the epidemic does not start in this market.”

Another criticism in the virologist’s research is based on the fact that the first case identified, as mentioned in the WHO document, has nothing to do with the market. but, Although the organization’s report stated that the patient has been ill since December 8In fact, he didn’t show any symptoms until December 16, according to the researcher.

This conclusion is the result of the analysis of a video interview about a condition described in a scientific article and a hospital medical record, corresponding to a 41-year-old patient.

Thus the first known patient becomes the woman who fell ill on December 11, who was a market vendor. Asked The New York TimesPeter Daszak, who was among the experts the World Health Organization sent to Wuhan in January 2021, admitted that “the December 8 date was a mistake.”

The journalist who filmed the lockdown in China is about to die

Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist detained after filming how the lockdown was implemented in Wuhan, the world’s first city to detect Covid-19 cases, about to die. She warned her family about her health in early November.

The 38-year-old former lawyer announced that she was on a hunger strike after she was sentenced in late 2020 to four years in prison for “provoking disturbances of public order”, a charge usually attributed in China to political opponents. She has been force-fed for several months.

In February 2020, a Shanghai lawyer traveled to Wuhan, central China, to recount the situation a few days after starting an application. Close Saab in a city of 11 million people. Pictures of patients in the crowded hospital corridor were one of the few information released at the time about health conditions in the city.

(With information from AFP)