WHO “92 hospitalized with similar symptoms two months before the first coronavirus diagnosis in China”

Input 2021.02.12 11:18

The possibility of an outbreak already in Hubei Province in October 2019
WHO “must further check”… Chinese “I can’t get permission to inspect”

The World Health Organization (WHO) investigation team dispatched to China to investigate the origin of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) recorded medical records of 92 people hospitalized with symptoms similar to Corona 19 such as pneumonia in Hubei Province, China in October 2019. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that it was obtained from the government on the 10th (local time). It is two months before December 2019, when the world’s first confirmed case was found in Wuhan.

Some experts say they are not sure that these 92 patients really have COVID-19, given that the symptoms of Corona 19 are similar to other respiratory diseases, but they are well worth investigating.

The Chinese government has conducted serological tests on them in recent months, but a third of them have already died or refused to be tested, the WHO investigation team said. The serum test is a test to check the presence or absence of antibodies generated in the body when suffering from Corona 19.

Although all of the patients who responded to the test were negative, experts explained that it cannot be concluded that they have never had Corona 19. More than a year after they became ill, the antibodies may have decreased to undetectable levels.

The WHO investigative team called on the Chinese government to do more extensive serological testing of blood samples collected in Hubei Province in the fall of 2019, saying “more research is needed.” In response, the Chinese government replied that it had not obtained permission for serological testing of many samples stored in blood banks.

Professor Liang Wannian (梁萬年) Tsinghua University, who participated in the WHO investigation as a panel of Chinese experts, said that after examining medical records and blood samples obtained from 233 medical institutions in Hubei Province, there was no evidence that the virus had spread before December 2019. did.