Coronavirus Patient Zero? Man in US Not Infected in January, Antibody Tests Suggest

On January 2020, Wuhan City in China was put on a lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak which allegedly started in a wet market. But this precautionary measure was far too late, and the highly-communicable virus has already spread in all parts of the globe, including in the U.S.

Recently, experts uncover the truth about the first-ever coronavirus patient in the US, and how China tried to mislead the world.

First US COVID-19 patient in December?

A viral hotspot was first detected with the two infections in the Snohomish County, north of Seattle. The patients tested positive for COVID-19 symptoms in December, that was contradictory to the timeline when the coronavirus landed in the US, according to the Seattle Times.

Report of the Snohomish patients beat the first US case, that was almost a month earlier than the 50-year old man declared positive for infection on January 20.

According to Dr. Chris Spitters, health officer for the Snohomish Health District, "Maybe it was that individual that was the first introduction in January, (but) it certainly wasn't the only one. And it's reasonable to assume, given reports like the ones that we've had and others around the country, that introduction may have occurred before January, as we initially suspected."

Tests were done and the doctors were caught off guard by the results after they registered positive. The returned result showing that antibodies were detected, it gave a different picture that the coronavirus may have traveled from Wuhan undetected.

But public health officials consider the two residents as not part of any official tally of cases, because there is no way to know if the two were infected.

Heather Thomas, a Snohomish Health District spokeswoman, told The Seattle Times it might be probable, not impossible and infection existed. The two positive individuals were not added from January and after that.

Symptoms were felt as early as Christmas

Of the two identified coronavirus positive individuals, Jean (not her real name), reported coughing and a high fever for two days, after the 25th of December

The 64-year old retired nurse had improvement after thanks to a nebulizer. After getting better, Jean took a test to see if the virus might have been COVID-19. After checking the result of her test soon after, it indicated there were antibodies detect in her blood!

Jean told the Seattle Times, "When I got sick, I didn't even know what COVID-19 was." The healed patient requested to be identified by her middle name.

She also mentioned that the antibodies will not bring immunity, that much is guaranteed. Though it gave peace of mind that survival is a turn.

Thomas said 30 people in the districts are a carrier for the antibodies that repel the coronavirus. The positive serology tests will not be able to determine if the two residents are carriers at home.

Officials speculate they could have been exposed after the first case, and in the Kirkland nursing home. By definition, these cases in December had the symptoms expounded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for positive cases.

Following the timeline of the first detected case in Wuhan, the first US coronavirus was infected several days after Christmas. Next is the discovery of antibodies due to exposure, how did the coronavirus reach the US this early? China needs to explain.

Tags

January