At the beginning of this year, coronavirus spread rapidly in Italy. Some Italian researchers have asked: Will the coronavirus exist in Italy long ago?
On November 11, 2020, the “Journal of Oncology” published their research results, and found that in September last year, there were people in Italy who were positive for SARS-CoV2 receptor binding region-specific antibodies.
This pushed forward the existence of coronavirus in Italy by another 5 months.
In the original words of the research report, this may “reshape the history of the pandemic.”
One of the main authors of the paper, Monto Mori, professor of public health at the University of Siena, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the main station.
Professor Monto Mori said that in the serum samples collected from all over Italy, the antibody distribution from September 2019 to February 2020 showed such a distribution: 959 asymptomatic individuals had SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in the sera A total of 111 positive sera were detected. Of these, 23 were from September 2019 and 27 were from October.
More than half (13, 56.5%) of the positive sera in September 2019 came from Lombardy, and Lombardy was the region with the most severe pandemic before March in Italy.
It is worth mentioning that the geographical distribution of positive sera is highly consistent with the geographical distribution of confirmed cases published by the Italian Ministry of Health.
Why didn’t the outbreak in Italy last year?
Since antibodies were detected in September and October last year, why didn’t the pandemic break out at that time? Montomori said:
From a scientific point of view, an outbreak requires a certain incubation period , which began in October last year and reached a small peak in February and March.
Another factor is seasonality. COVID-19 is not the same as influenza. Influenza likes cold, but COVID-19 prefers milder weather, so it will break out when it is milder from January to March. This is the second guess.
From November to December last year, I saw more patients with pneumonia in the hospital, but unfortunately I have no data to support it. A small-scale outbreak is likely to have occurred at the end of last year.
Looking for the earliest new coronavirus, time in many countries is constantly pushing forward
On March 10 this year, the Italian Higher Health Institute issued an pandemic report. Except for the three cases reported earlier, it was most likely to have been infected in China, and one could not determine the source of infection. The other 8,338 cases were all infected in Italy.
On June 18, the genetic material (RNA) of the new coronavirus was detected in the wastewater of Milan, Turin, and Bologna, and the virus’s existence in Italy was pushed forward to December 18, 2019.
On June 30, according to local media reports, statistics from health and medical institutions in the Italian province of Bergamo showed that a total of 110 “strange” pneumonia cases were treated last winter. Time has advanced to November last year.
With the continuous deepening of research, the earliest existence of the new coronavirus in many countries is constantly moving forward.
On November 16th, the British “The Sun” reported that a British man recalled that he had traveled to Rome, Italy in September last year. After returning to the UK, he developed strange illnesses and was even critically ill.
Now this man suspects that he may be the first person infected with coronavirus in the UK.
As long as someone is still searching for the truth, the truth may be late but will not be absent.
