Xinhua News
Jun 8, 20213 min
"We did not find evidence of the virus but rather of the antibodies an infection leaves behind," Montomoli said. "The only way for that to be the case was for the coronavirus or something very similar to have infected these people in late 2019. It's possible it was the same virus that had been found in Wuhan in December (2019) or perhaps it was a less serious and less transmissible variant."
At the time the results of the study were released, Giovanni Apolone, scientific director of the institute, said the findings did not cast doubt on the origins of the virus but do call into question the timing.
Montomoli said the findings are important because they "help create a more accurate picture" of the virus' evolution, something he said both help confront the current pandemic and respond to a future pandemic more effectively.
"What we discovered does not prove anything on its own, but it is an important piece of a puzzle," he said.
A press official from the WHO only confirmed it was studying the findings from the INT when contacted by Xinhua.
There has been speculation in the Italian media that the presence of the coronavirus so much earlier could help explain reports of a particularly severe flu season in Milan between October and December 2019.
In a bulletin dated Dec. 24, 2019, Italy's Health Ministry reported high levels of "unusual" strains of flu and pneumonia concentrated in the area around Milan and appearing in 17 of Italy's 20 regions.
On Jan. 7, 2020, Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera ran an article about inflammation in patients apparently caused by the "Pneumococcus bacterium," but noted that some cases seemed to be caused by a virus. The article said some hospitals in Milan had to use extra beds to accommodate the unusually high number of patients.
On Thursday, INT researchers said there was no possibility that antibodies present in patients due to infections from other COVID-type viruses were mistaken for the coronavirus.
Xinhua News, Editor: huaxia
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