When Did COVID-19 Really Begin?

COVID-19 had been a global scourge approaching two years now. Anything that could be politicized has been, from public health recommendations to therapeutics and vaccines. A good rule of thumb has been to look at what former President Donald Trump said, then assume the media and medical/scientific establishment will say the opposite, castigating anyone who shared Trump’s opinion.

The Wuhan coronavirus did not become a household name until March 2020 when the business closures, lockdowns, and stay-at-home orders began. Before that it was just a peripheral news story yet even then the anti-Trump sentiment was evident. In late January 2020, Trump issued a travel ban from China when there were only a few confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States. Did he know something about the true origins of the virus?

Reflexively and predictably, the media pounced, echoed by Democrats, calling Trump racist and xenophobic. The reaction was far different when President Biden issued a travel ban from India several months ago due to a surge in cases. If there were accusations of racism or xenophobia, the media chose to ignore them.

When did COVID-19 really start? Was it in January 2020 when the U.S. first  confirmed cases? Or was it much earlier? Why is this not of interest to the “follow the science” media? Isn’t a basic tenet of public health identifying the origin of contagious infectious disease? How do we know where a virus is going if we don’t even know where it began?

Investigative journalist Sharyl Atkinson recently tweeted,

Europe, French researchers said they found traces of covid-19 in Nov 2019...scientists from National Cancer Institute of Milan and University of Siena found 10% of blood samples from a cancer screening trial contained COVID antibodies... samples included some from Sept 2019.

According to the study, 11.6% of individuals in a clinical trial, months before COVID-19 was a known problem, had already been exposed to the virus. As antibodies take several weeks post infection to develop, it’s likely that some individuals had active infection in August 2019, or perhaps much earlier as antibodies persist for months or years post infection.

Not only Italy but also France, “Tests suggests COVID-19 could have existed in France in November 2019 – two months before the first cases were officially confirmed in Europe.”

There were similar findings in the United States. Antibody tests were run on American Red Cross blood donations from December 2019 to January 2020 and just over 1% of blood donations contained COVID-19 antibodies, suggesting that the virus was active in the U.S. in fall 2019, perhaps earlier.

China also inadvertently suggested an earlier than reported genesis of COVID-19. “Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.”

These Wuhan scientists became sick in fall 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.” When did U.S. intelligence agencies first learn of this? Why was it kept a secret by both China and U.S. intelligence agencies? If such information was more forthcoming, could the resulting pandemic have been handled differently? Or was this part of the plan all along?

U.S. intelligence officials apparently knew in November 2019 of “a  contagion sweeping through China’s Wuhan region.” Finding antibodies in blood samples from that time period offer confirmation.

Even the clever Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted that Trump would “no doubt” face an infectious disease outbreak during his presidency. Did he mean an unusually bad flu season or something like COVID-19? Has anyone asked him?

The World Health Organization, tasked with providing honest information and assessments failed miserably, unless their disinformation was intentional. Their mission, according to their website is “to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.” How did they do?

Even the New York Times acknowledged how the WHO played fast and loose with the facts, “As it praised Beijing, the World Health Organization concealed concessions to China and may have sacrificed the best chance to unravel the virus’s origins.” Only recently can lab origin ideas be discussed whereas last year such ideas were racist and enough for one to be banned from social media or potentially lose one’s job.

If we can’t have an honest discussion about the true origin of COVID-19 and the timeline, how are we to treat it, much less prepare for the next viral outbreak?

The world has seen 186 million cases and over 4 million deaths at latest count and there still has not been a thorough investigation into the origins of the coronavirus that buzz-sawed the world. Think of how much time and resources were spent investigating fabricated Trump-Russia collusion and why there is no similar investigation into how the government and media censored and suppressed potentially lifesaving information that could have saved countless lives and prevented so much misery.

The truth is seeping out, slowly but steadily, exposing mountains of malpractice by the government, media, and health agencies. Hopefully there will someday be a reckoning for these crimes against humanity.

At least we are finally learning that COVID-19 was around far longer than we have been told, and that spiting Trump was far more important than seeking the truth.

See Other Commentaries by Brian C. Joondeph.

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Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate.