COVID-19 May Not Have Originated in China

Researchers have tested untreated sewage for remnants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and some scientists have arrived at a surprising but unconfirmed theory—that the new betacoronavirus appeared in Europe long before the first reported cases in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.

The findings from Spain and Italy led Oxford University epidemiologist Tom Jefferson MD, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Center For Evidence-Based Medicine, to speculate that the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not originate in China. “I think the virus was already here—here meaning everywhere,” he told The Telegraph on July 5, 2020. “We may be seeing a dormant virus that has been activated by environmental conditions.”

The Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian studies have not been peer-reviewed, and some experts have suggested alternative explanations for the positive test results Reuters reported.