Amidst the battle against coronavirus and the various assumptions and debates involving a savior vaccine, mind-blowing news arises: the novel coronavirus may have been in Europe for much longer than previously thought!
Coronavirus might be in Europe since March 2019
Science Alert reveals that some recent studies suggest that the virus has been circulating an Italy as early as December 2019, but it seems that experts at the University of Barcelona found traces of the virus when testing untreated wastewater samples dated 12 March 2019.
This study was published on a preprint server called medRxiv, and the paper is now subject to critical review by the outside experts in preparation for being published on a scientific review.
It’s important to note the fact that until the process of peer review has been completed, the evidence needs to be treated with extreme caution, according to what the experts had to say.
The experiment
The online publication mentioned above is addressing how exactly the experiment was conducted and what has been discovered.
“One of the early findings about SARS-CoV-2 is that it is found in the feces of infected people. As the virus makes its way through the gut – where it can cause gastrointestinal symptoms – it loses its outer protein layer, but bits of genetic material called RNA survive the journey intact and are “shed” in feces,” according to the notes.
It’s been also revealed that at this point, it is no longer infectious, according to current evidence.
On the other hand, the notes also say that the fact that these bits of coronavirus RNA can be found in untreated wastewater is really useful for tracking outbreaks.
We recommend that you check out the complete article in order to learn all the details.
Also, Fox News just revealed that there are various well-documented reports that address the fact that elderly adults and the people with some underlying conditions are more susceptible to the negative effects of the virus. Check out these five red flags.