quoting wikipedia, as I remember this, reports that the virus was circulating in France before it was generally recognised:
"Unconfirmed reports of early cases
A September 2020 review noted the hypothetical possibility that the COVID-19 infection had already spread to Europe in 2019 by presumptive evidences including pneumonia case numbers and radiology in France and Italy in November and December. However, a subsequent retrospective surveillance report determined there was no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 circulation in Rome (Italy) during this period.
Some medical and environmental analyses in Italy, France, and the US found results which suggested the virus was circulating prior to December 2019 by several weeks. A WHO report states: "the study findings were not confirmed, methods used were not standardized, and serological assays may suffer from non-specific signals". It urges further investigation of these potential early events."
So that all seems a bit questionable; patient zero, according to wiki's timeline again, was December 1:
Despite the possibility that the disease was circulating before this, December 1 seems a reasonable date to me to cast a chart for, as the disease was early on referred to as the "WuFlu", so I think to say it had at least its symbolic, and possibly actual, beginning in Wuhan on Dec 1 2019 seems, um, reasonable.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2024-07-09 08:09 pm (UTC)"Unconfirmed reports of early cases
A September 2020 review noted the hypothetical possibility that the COVID-19 infection had already spread to Europe in 2019 by presumptive evidences including pneumonia case numbers and radiology in France and Italy in November and December. However, a subsequent retrospective surveillance report determined there was no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 circulation in Rome (Italy) during this period.
Some medical and environmental analyses in Italy, France, and the US found results which suggested the virus was circulating prior to December 2019 by several weeks. A WHO report states: "the study findings were not confirmed, methods used were not standardized, and serological assays may suffer from non-specific signals". It urges further investigation of these potential early events."
So that all seems a bit questionable; patient zero, according to wiki's timeline again, was December 1:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_2019#1_December
Despite the possibility that the disease was circulating before this, December 1 seems a reasonable date to me to cast a chart for, as the disease was early on referred to as the "WuFlu", so I think to say it had at least its symbolic, and possibly actual, beginning in Wuhan on Dec 1 2019 seems, um, reasonable.