A leap in research Internet symptoms of Covid-19 and the crowds in hospitals in the Chinese city of Wuhan suggest that the disease may have appeared on site as early as August 2019, according to the results of a preliminary American study.The coronavirus, which comes from a virus that can be transmitted from animals to humans, was first identified in the Huanan market in Wuhan in China, where exotic animals were sold alive, in December 2019. Experts then determined that an earlier genetic version of the virus had emerged in mid-November 2019. An article in the Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported that a “Zero patient” was found on November 17 citing government data. The new study, which has yet to appear in a scientific community publication, was conducted through the prism of an even recent discipline, “Digital epidemiology”A team led by Elaine Nsoesie of Boston University analyzed 111 satellite images of Wuhan over the period from January 2018 to April 2020.“A strong increase in attendance from August 2019” was detected in the parking lots of Wuhan hospitals, “Culminating with a peak in December 2019”, noted the authors of the research.
Search engine research
Scientists also monitored the most-typed symptoms on Chinese search engine Baidu, and study members saw a jump in searches for the word. “Cough”, which can correspond to seasonal flu, but also in word searches “Diarrhea”, which is a more specific symptom of Covid-19.“In August, we noted a significant increase in research related to diarrhea, which had never been seen in previous seasonal influenza or which was not reflected in the cough research data”, the scientists explained. If the most well-known symptoms of the coronavirus are respiratory, the study suggests that diarrhea “Could play an important role in community transmission”, the authors concluded that if they were unable to make a definitive statement that the data were linked to Covid-19, the study supported the results of other research on the subject. .“These results also support the hypothesis that the virus appeared naturally in southern China and that it was potentially already circulating at the time of the Wuhan outbreak.”, they wrote.
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