“These findings indicate that SARS-CoV-2–reactive antibodies were detected in 106 specimens, a small percentage of blood donations from California, Oregon, and Washington, as early as 13–16 December 2019.”
Editing to add: studies are generally showing a similar trend in countries around the world: covid19 was around before people were aware it was, which really isn’t all that surprising. Spain and Italy, for instance, are both finding they likely had covid19 infections a month or more before the first reported case. An aerosolized virus, that often could be carried asymptomatically, could be mild in some cases, and could easily be mistaken for another flu, during an age of global travel…
It’s pretty expected, really, that it spread a bit before being noticed
The article title doesn’t back up the content. In particular, the article talks about how the blood samples it tested were taken
Sooooooooo yea. It’s a stretch to say it was in the US in December 2019.
“These findings indicate that SARS-CoV-2–reactive antibodies were detected in 106 specimens, a small percentage of blood donations from California, Oregon, and Washington, as early as 13–16 December 2019.”
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/72/12/e1004/6012472?login=false
Editing to add: studies are generally showing a similar trend in countries around the world: covid19 was around before people were aware it was, which really isn’t all that surprising. Spain and Italy, for instance, are both finding they likely had covid19 infections a month or more before the first reported case. An aerosolized virus, that often could be carried asymptomatically, could be mild in some cases, and could easily be mistaken for another flu, during an age of global travel… It’s pretty expected, really, that it spread a bit before being noticed