Coronavirus that causes disease COVID-19 most likely not escaped from a lab in China, and appeared in the world long before that and was just in “sleep” state, says a senior research fellow at the Oxford Centre of evidence-based medicine and visiting Professor, Newcastle University Tom Jefferson.
So, the scientist explained that the Spanish epidemiologists have found a virus SARS-CoV-2 in the sewage of Barcelona in March of last year, i.e. nine months before the outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan. In addition, traces of obnaruzhilis coronavirus in samples of wastewater of the Italian cities of Milan and Turin in December last year. Found them in Brazil in November 2019 after the research of sewage of the city of Florianopolis.
“Quite possibly, we are dealing with a sleeping virus, which was activated by the environmental conditions”, — quotes the words of Jefferson TASS.
In support of its version of the scientist cited the case during a pandemic, “Spanish flu”, which from 1918 to 1920 killed, according to various estimates, up to 100 million people. According to him, in 1918 from the Spanish flu died approximately 30 percent of the population of Western Samoa, although they have had no contact with the outside world. “In the case of the Spanish flu were strange things happening,” said Jefferson, adding that something similar is observed with the spread of coronavirus.