New studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirm that COVID-19 was detected in the United States last December.
While President Donald Trump claims the potentially fatal virus originated in China, on Monday he knew COVID-19 antibodies in 106 of the Red Cross’s 7,389 blood donations in nine states, The Hill reports.
Donations collected between December 13, 2019 and January 17, 2020 were sent to the CDC for analysis Antibodies were discovered in 39 samples from West Coast states, adding Washington, Oregon, and California, all collected between December 13 and 16.
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Antibodies were discovered in 67 blood samples taken between December 30, 2019 and January 17, 2020, in Midwest and East Coast states such as Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
COVID-19 antibodies were reported to have been detected in eighty-four of the samples tested.
“The effects of this report recommend that SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been provided in the United States in December 2019, sooner than recognized in the past,” the researchers wrote. “These effects also highlight the price of blood donations as a SARS-CoV-2 tracking source,” they added.
Similar measures were used when scientists detected and monitored the Zika virus outbreak.
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“CDC continues to work with federal and nongovernmental partners to conduct surveillance blood donations and clinical laboratory samples for SARS-CoV-2 infection at various sites in the United States,” the researchers wrote.
As the Grio reported in the past, Trump has called COVID-19 a “Chinese virus” to protect himself from his administration’s mismanage of the epidemic. In March, he turned to Twitter and noted that the federal government could affect many coronavirus industries.
“The United States will bet heavily on industries, such as airlines and others, that are affected by the Chinese virus. We’ll be more powerful than ever!” Trump tweeted.
Chinese condemned his tweet, not believing that he will continue to communicate about China as the United States also struggles to engage the virus and the federal government fails to lead.
“America first deals with its own business,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, according to NBC News.
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