Coronavirus traces found in March 2019 sewage sample, Spanish study
The University of Barcelona team, who had been testing waste water since mid-April this year to identify potential new outbreaks, decided to also run tests on older samples.
They first found the virus was present in Barcelona on Jan. 15, 2020, 41 days before the first case was officially reported there.
Then they ran tests on samples taken between January 2018 and December 2019 and found the presence of the virus genome in one of them, collected on March 12, 2019.
"The levels of SARS-CoV-2 were low but were positive," research leader Albert Bosch was quoted as saying by the university.
The Wuhan lab received USAID funding for equipment, and PREDICT coordinators connected the scientists there with researchers in other countries in order to synchronize tracking of novel viruses before SARS-CoV-2.
The project’s second funding cycle concluded on Sept. 30, 2019, less than two months before the new coronavirus probably began spreading. It was granted a zero-dollar six-month extension — through March 2020 — to write up final reports.
Vaping-associated pulmonary injury (VAPI), also known as vaping-associated lung injury (VALI) or e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (E/VALI). All CDC-reported cases of VAPI involved a history of using e-cigarette, or vaping, products, with most samples having tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by the US FDA and most patients reporting a history of using a THC-containing product. CDC data show that the outbreak peaked in September 2019, and declined steadily to a low level through January 2020.In late February 2020, a CDC-authored article in the NEJM stated that the VAPI outbreak was "driven by the use of THC-containing products from informal and illicit sources."
The underlying pathogeneses of COVID-19 and EVALI are substantially different, as SARS-CoV-2 relies upon angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expressed in the airway surface epithelium in order to mediate viral entry, while EVALI represents a general inflammatory and subsequent fibrotic response to chemical toxicants. Subpoenas
In September 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo instructed the state health department to issue subpoenas against three sellers of thickening agents used in illicit vaping products. The subpoenas are being served against Honey Cut Labs in Santa Monica, California, for its Honey Cut product; Floraplex Terpenes in Ypsilanti, Michigan, for its Uber Thick product; and Mass Terpenes in Amherst, Massachusetts, for its product.
On 5 September 2019, Tyler Huffhines and Jacob Huffhines were arrested. Search warrants were served on a house at their place of residence and at a leased condominium. In September 2019, an investigation in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, is underway to determine whether a major operation ran by the Huffhines brothers for purportedly making illicit THC vape cartridges, which were packed in containers to resemble candy and were thought to have been marketed to youth, could be related to a series of vaping-induced lung illness and deaths in the US.
On 17 October 2019, 22-year-old Jordan Lynam was charged with making THC vape cartridges in relation to the Huffhines's purportedly illicit vaping operation.
On 23 September 2019, a product liability lawsuit, Charles Wilcoxson v. Canna Brand Solutions LLC et al., was filed in Superior Court of Pierce County, Washington, against makers of THC vape cartridges.
In September 2019, 35-year-old Erin Gilbert from Virgin Islands filed a lawsuit against Just CBD in a Broward County, Florida court, contending that her sickness was the result of a CBD vape oil containing mango flavor that she had purchased from a merchant in Saint Croix.
In September 2019, a lawsuit was brought on behalf of an 18-year-old from Illinois who had been hospitalized with lung damage from vaping.
On 29 October 2019, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest district in the nation filed a class action suit against Juul for creating an epidemic of youth vaping that it alleged to impede student learning and endanger the health and safety of its students.
The 2019 Military World Games and Sick Athletes
The 7th International Military Sports Council Military World Games (MWGs) opened in Wuhan on October 18, 2019. The games are similar to the Olympic games but consist of military athletes with some added military disciplines. The MWGs in Wuhan drew 9,308 athletes, representing 109 countries, to compete in 329 events across 27 sports. Twenty-five countries sent delegations of more than 100 athletes, including Russia, Brazil, France, Germany, and Poland.
The PRC government recruited 236,000 volunteers for the games, which required 90 hotels, three railroad stations, and more than 2,000 drivers. An archived version of the competition’s website from October 20, 2019, lists the more than thirty venues that hosted events for the MWGs across Wuhan and the broader Hubei province. The live website is no longer accessible – it is unclear why it was removed.
During the games, many of the international athletes became sick with what now appear to be symptoms of COVID-19. In one interview, an athlete from Luxembourg described Wuhan as a “ghost town,” and recalls having his temperature taken upon arriving at the city’s airport. In an interview with The Financial Post, a Canadian newspaper, one member of the Canadian Armed Forces who participated in the games said (emphasis added):
[I got] very sick 12 days after we arrived, with fever, chills, vomiting, insomnia.... On our flight to come home, 60 Canadian athletes on the flight were put in isolation [at the back of the plane] for the 12-hour flight. We were sick with symptoms ranging from coughs to diarrhea and in between. - Canadian Athlete
The service member also revealed his family members became ill as his symptoms increased, a development that is consistent with both human-to- human transmission of a viral infection and COVID-19. Similar claims about COVID-19 like symptoms have been made by athletes from Germany, France, Italy, and Sweden.
By cross referencing the listed MWG venues with publicly available mapping data, it is possible to visualize the venues (in black) in relation to the WIV Headquarters (in red) and the above- mentioned hospitals (in blue). The green figures represent athletes who have publicly expressed their belief they contracted COVID-19 while in Wuhan and are mapped at the venues which hosted the events in which they competed. Some of these athletes resided in the military athletes’ village. This was a city of 15 million people that was in lockdown. It was strange, but we were told this was to make it easy for the Games’ participants to get around.
At least four countries who sent delegations to the MWGs have now confirmed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 cases within their borders in November and December 2019, before the news of an outbreak first became public.
1. Italy. In February 2021, researchers from Italy published a research letter in the CDC’s
Emerging Infectious Diseases journal describing a case involving a 4-year-old boy from Milan. A retrospective analysis of samples taken in 2019 identified the boy, who developed a cough on November 21, 2019, as having been infected with SARS-CoV-2 three months before Italy’s first reported case. The boy had no reported travel history.
2. Brazil. A March 2021 article by researchers in Brazil examined wastewater samples from
October to December 2019. Previous studies have confirmed that humans infected with the virus can experience prolonged viral shedding via their gastrointestinal tract. A sample from November 27th tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, confirming the virus was circulating in Santa Catarina, Brazil months before January 21, 2020, when the first case in the Americas was reported.
3. Sweden. Sweden’s Public Health Agency said it is likely that individuals in the country were infected with SARS-CoV-2 as early as November 2019.
4. France. Researchers in France also re-tested samples from late 2019 in an effort to identify early COVID-19 cases. They identified a 42-year-old male who presented to the emergency room on December 27th with an influenza-like illness. He had no connection to the PRC and no recent travel history. Upon re-testing, the patient’s samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2. It should be noted that one of his children also had similar symptoms before the man became sick, suggesting that the first case in France was likely earlier than December 27th.
As stated above, athletes from France, Italy, and Sweden also complained of illnesses with symptoms similar to COVID-19 while at the MWGs in Wuhan. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in four countries, on two separate continents, suggests a common source. If, as presumed, SARS-CoV-2 first infected humans in Wuhan before spreading to the rest of the world, the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan appears to be a key vector in the global spread – it other words, potentially one of the first “super spreader” events.
Scientists find coronavirus in Spanish wastewater collected in March 2019
Scientists say coronavirus traces have been found in Spanish wastewater samples collected on 12 March 2019 - months before the pandemic shook the world.
Researchers in Spain tested wastewater for the coronavirus.
Researchers in Spain tested wastewater for the coronavirus. Source: AP
Spanish virologists have found traces of the novel coronavirus in a sample of Barcelona wastewater collected in March 2019, nine months before the COVID-19 disease was identified in China, the University of Barcelona says.
The discovery of virus genome presence so early in Spain, if confirmed, would imply the disease may have appeared much earlier than the scientific community thought.
The University of Barcelona team, who had been testing wastewater since mid-April this year to identify potential new outbreaks, decided to also run tests on older samples.
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They first found the virus was present in Barcelona on 15 January 2020, 41 days before the first case was officially reported there.
Then they ran tests on samples taken between January 2018 and December 2019 and found the presence of the virus genome in one of them, collected on 12 March 2019.
"The levels of SARS-CoV-2 were low but were positive," research leader Albert Bosch was quoted as saying by the university.
The research has been submitted for a peer review.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March this year.
The government of the People's Republic of China has downplayed the emergence of COVID-19 in China and spread misinformation about its origin and spread around the world. Beijing and pro-China actors have also amplified disinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19
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