New Report Says Coronavirus May Have Made Early Appearance in France (NYT)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/world/europe/france-coronavirus-timeline.html

New Report Says Coronavirus May Have Made Early Appearance in France
A sample taken on Dec. 27 from a French patient with pneumonia has tested positive for coronavirus, nearly a month before the disease was first officially acknowledged to have emerged in France.
By Adam Nossiter and Aurelien Breeden
May 5, 2020

PARIS — Weeks before Chinese authorities acknowledged that the coronavirus could be transmitted by humans, and nearly a month before the first officially recorded cases in Europe, a 42-year-old fishmonger showed up at a hospital in suburban Paris coughing, feverish and having trouble breathing. It was Dec. 27.

Now doctors in France say that the December patient may have been the earliest known coronavirus case in Europe.

If confirmed, the case of the fishmonger, Amirouche Hammar, would mean the deadly virus made an appearance on the continent long before officials there began tackling it. Such a discovery would bring a strange new wrinkle to the story of the virus in Europe, one that has the potential of blowing up the previously established chronology.

The French government says it is looking at the report. The doctors who made the finding said that they are confident in it, and that they tested the patient’s old sample twice to avoid false positives. But they acknowledged that they could not completely rule out that possibility.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. So did anyone else who was in contact with this patient get it?

If not, that just seems bizarre. And would make a false positive even more likely.

[BusyBeingBest]

2. Doesn't surprise me at all. If it was known to be circulating in China in November, why

couldn't it be on other continents, albeit in a very limited way, by December/January? Also, maybe the US ought to start looking at deaths in the Dec/Jan timeframe that were thought to be pneumonia, ARDS, suspected flu-related deaths. Like they did with the California patient who died Feb. 6. Maybe she wasn't the first.

[Blue_true]

3. I agree. Wuhan is a big international transport hub.

It wouldn't be surprising if one of his customers gave it to him after getting it from traveling to Wuhan or from someone who did travel to Wuhan.