The US administration must be terrified right now by new discoveries by American and European scientists about the early spread of the novel coronavirus, because they not only improve people’s understanding of the virus, but are shaking the entire Trump administration’s campaign strategy. That strategy is based on a bizarre logic of anti-science and anti-politics common sense. In recent days there have been numerous reports around the world that conclusive evidence or people involved suggesting the novel coronavirus has been spreading in Europe and the US as early as the end of last year. France found confirmed case of the infection late last year. A New Jersey mayor claimed that the flu he suffered from in November last year was COVID-19 because he has got a novel coronavirus antibody. There were also reports in Italy of COVID-19 cases at the end of last year. CNN reported on the 6th that researchers at the University College London’s (UCL) Genetics Institute found that the novel coronavirus had been spreading around the world in the second half of last year. This was supposed to be a dry piece of scientific information, but now it has been highlighted by the world’s major media, all as a result of the Trump administration’s politicization of the origin of the virus. After the outbreak in Wuhan in January this year, some people at home and abroad assumed that the virus originated from wildlife in Wuhan. Some scientists first alerted people to the possibility that the outbreak may have occurred in a different place from where the virus originated. The Chinese understood this as soon as they heard it. Many foreigners understood it, but people did not pay special attention to it. The US government has claimed that Wuhan is the origin of the virus as a conclusion for election purposes, and then claimed the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan, which echoes the farce of some US forces demanding compensation from China and completely politicizes the issue. The nature of things has changed. It might be a wrong impression that the outbreak first occurred in Wuhan. China is vigilant toward similar outbreaks because of lessons of SARS. Moreover, China’s flu season last winter was not as severe as that in the US and Europe, and new outbreak was more likely to stand out. Without the lessons of SARS, the doctors in Wuhan could not have had their suspicions of encountering another SARS at the end of December, when the medical community had no knowledge of novel coronavirus. Last winter’s flu season in the US and Europe probably had some early cases of COVID-19. –CN
