New study makes a surprising discovery about the coronavirus in New York

[Chris Smith]

• According to a new immunity study, the novel coronavirus was circulating in New York long before the first COVID-19 cases were diagnosed.
• The findings are surprising to many people, though they are in line with similar research that said the virus was spreading in US and European communities a lot earlier than expected.
• The Mount Sinai study also indicates that as many as 22% of New York City residents may have been infected, a figure that’s too low to offer herd immunity protection.

The novel coronavirus has been spreading inside communities since early 2020, well before the first cases were officially diagnosed. Researchers from France proved that Paris doctors had treated COVID-19 patients in late 2019, and there’s at least one similar study for Washington State. Other doctors in northern France also think they treated coronavirus pneumonia in late 2019. In Italy, doctors found evidence that says their local outbreaks started well before the first case was officially diagnosed. Spanish researchers found traces of the virus in sewage water that predates the start of the local epidemic. Separately, researchers had shown increased hospital activity in Wuhan, China in the months before the first cases were disclosed, suggesting the illness may have been spreading in the city well before China made any announcements. That study relied on imagery showing hospital parking occupancy, not actual testing from coronavirus patients who didn’t know they suffered from a new illness.

A brand new study from Mount Sinai researchers has a similar conclusion for the New York COVID-19 outbreak. The virus was already spreading silently in the city as early as early February, several weeks before the first cases were confirmed with PCR testing. This will come as a surprise to many people, who thought that much of the early undiagnosed spread was happening on the west coast. The researchers also offered a few other interesting conclusions about antibody testing, COVID-19 immunity, and herd immunity.

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New study makes a surprising discovery about the coronavirus in New York originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 4 Nov 2020 at 12:04:28 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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