[Western Journal] A new study estimates that the first human cases of COVID-19 in China may have occurred as early as September.China has admitted that the disease was present in Wuhan, the capital of its Hubei Province, in December, although for weeks into January it denied that human-to-human transmission had already taken place.
Some reports have said that, according to internal Chinese documents not shared with the West, cases of the virus existed as early as November.
But now, according to the U.K. Daily Star, a University of Cambridge geneticist and his research team are arguing even that timetable could be off by as much as two months.
All viruses mutate. Cambridge geneticist Peter Forster has been tracking the subtle mutations of the novel coronavirus, hoping to find — based on the DNA of the virus in those who were infected in December — how far back the trail of mutations will lead him.
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"The virus may have mutated into its final ’human-efficient’ form months ago, but stayed inside a bat or other animal or even human for several months without infecting other individuals," Forster said, according to the Daily Star.
"Then, it started infecting and spreading among humans between September 13 and December 7," he said.