WEBVTT - Study Shows COVID Virus Was in U.S. as Early as December 2019

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<v Speaker 1>It's Wednesday, June. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive

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<v Speaker 1>podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. A

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<v Speaker 1>new study done by the National Institutes of Health is

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<v Speaker 1>showing that in five states some people were infected with

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen before those states recorded their first cases. Blood

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<v Speaker 1>samples collected between January and March of were tested for

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<v Speaker 1>anybody's Out of thousand samples, nine came back positive. Betsy McKay,

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<v Speaker 1>senior writer at the Wall Street Journal, joins us for more.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us today, Betsy, thanks for having We

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<v Speaker 1>have a new research study that was done by the

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<v Speaker 1>National Institutes of Health that turned up evidence of a

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<v Speaker 1>possible coronavirus infection in the United States, multiple ones, actually

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<v Speaker 1>as early as December, maybe sometime around Christmas time. And

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<v Speaker 1>so these are all weeks before the first documented infections

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<v Speaker 1>in the country and and and even in those particular

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<v Speaker 1>states as well. Uh So, Betsy, walk us through some

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<v Speaker 1>of this. What do we what are we learning? So,

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<v Speaker 1>the n i H has a big research program that

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<v Speaker 1>you and the listeners may have heard of, called the

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<v Speaker 1>All of Us Research Program, and its goal is to

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<v Speaker 1>enroll a million people across the country of diverse backgrounds,

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<v Speaker 1>and through the database that they built on that to

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<v Speaker 1>study risk factors for disease and treatments and so forth.

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<v Speaker 1>They're building this big database of blood samples and so

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<v Speaker 1>forth from people volunteers who enroll. So what they decided

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<v Speaker 1>to do is use the blood samples that they have

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<v Speaker 1>collected so far to look at this kind of growing

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<v Speaker 1>question of interest. You know, how early did the pandemic

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<v Speaker 1>reach US shores? When when did people first start getting sick?

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<v Speaker 1>Because we know the first person to be you know,

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<v Speaker 1>formally diagnosed was in late January, around January nineteen, but

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<v Speaker 1>that was right after a test became available. So the

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<v Speaker 1>CDC Center Starch the Zoo Control Prevention developed the test,

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<v Speaker 1>it's made available in its lab and boom, two days later,

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<v Speaker 1>someone has this. So that raises a question as well,

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<v Speaker 1>are they really the first person or not. So these

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<v Speaker 1>researchers went through and tested blood samples going back to

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<v Speaker 1>the beginning of January. As you mentioned, this program had

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<v Speaker 1>nothing to do with COVID. We didn't really know about

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<v Speaker 1>it then, So this is just a program that had

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<v Speaker 1>been ongoing. I think out of two thousand, a little

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<v Speaker 1>over twenty four thousand participants, they found evidence of infection

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<v Speaker 1>in just nine people. That suggests a number of different things.

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<v Speaker 1>What they did find though, also is that in five

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<v Speaker 1>states Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, they had people

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<v Speaker 1>that have showed evidence of infection and that was all

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<v Speaker 1>before you know, anybody had gotten in those first states,

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<v Speaker 1>big areas like California and New York, there was no

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<v Speaker 1>infections that turned up at least in the in these

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<v Speaker 1>blood samples. What they found was that people, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>they looked at blood samples going back into early January,

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<v Speaker 1>and what they were looking for with antibodies in the blood.

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<v Speaker 1>These are blood samples that were taken at the time

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<v Speaker 1>and then they're frozen and stored for research later. So

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<v Speaker 1>the researchers go back, they test the bloods for antibodies

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<v Speaker 1>using two different tests to make sure that it really

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<v Speaker 1>is the COVID nineteen virus called stars Kobe two and

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<v Speaker 1>not something else. So they found, you know, one person

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<v Speaker 1>on January seven, one person on January eight, and that

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<v Speaker 1>the antibodies they found normally start to appear about two

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<v Speaker 1>weeks after someone is infected, so that means those two

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<v Speaker 1>people one in Illinois and one in Massachusetts were likely

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<v Speaker 1>infected round December December twenty four or maybe a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit earlier. Then they went later in time through March,

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, twenty four thousand samples, as you said,

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<v Speaker 1>you only found nine cases. So what that shows is

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<v Speaker 1>that certainly the virus was here earlier than we knew before,

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<v Speaker 1>and a couple of studies have shown that now, but

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<v Speaker 1>it wasn't, you know, not in large numbers. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>these were kind of like sporadic cases, and that happens

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<v Speaker 1>often with infectious to these is you know, something that

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<v Speaker 1>causes an outbreak, there's a few cases here, a case here,

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<v Speaker 1>a case there, and eventually something takes hold and it

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<v Speaker 1>starts to spread, but until then there are these cases

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<v Speaker 1>that are missed. Community spread is what a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>the term that was floating around very early on in

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<v Speaker 1>the pandemic, and this shows that there really wasn't much

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<v Speaker 1>of that, despite you know a lot of people anecdotally saying,

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<v Speaker 1>oh man, I got sick so bad around that time.

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<v Speaker 1>It sounds just exactly like this. Uh, you know a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people were saying that. But even in this

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<v Speaker 1>kind of study, you know, looking at that data might

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<v Speaker 1>not have been so true. People still might have just

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<v Speaker 1>gotten regular colds around that time. One of the limitations

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<v Speaker 1>in this study, and something that they wanted to look

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<v Speaker 1>back into a little bit more, was that they don't

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<v Speaker 1>really show travel history for these people, these nine people

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<v Speaker 1>that did have those infections. So I think they wanted

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<v Speaker 1>to dig in a little bit more to see if

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<v Speaker 1>they had traveled to China or contact with anybody from

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<v Speaker 1>there around that time. Also, it's very little actually known

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<v Speaker 1>about these people and how they might have gotten infected.

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<v Speaker 1>What this means is looking back to that period, if

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<v Speaker 1>you had some symptoms, the chances are that no, you

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<v Speaker 1>didn't have COVID. But then are the only nine people, right,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean they may have spread it to one or

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<v Speaker 1>two other people. There are other people who may have

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<v Speaker 1>had this, and you know, weren't involved in this study,

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<v Speaker 1>but it wasn't in such large numbers that it would

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<v Speaker 1>have been noticed, you know that a hospital would have

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<v Speaker 1>started noticing they were getting a lot of patients with

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<v Speaker 1>the same strange systems as symptoms. Sorry, So it just

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't big enough at the time. Yeah, And so we

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<v Speaker 1>got this new data that I know you mentioned in

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<v Speaker 1>the article. There was another study that had similar results

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<v Speaker 1>in just showing that obviously we didn't have the COVID

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<v Speaker 1>test ready to go when we started seeing the first

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<v Speaker 1>inklings of it um, so it was kind of expected

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<v Speaker 1>that we were going to see some of these other

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<v Speaker 1>infections floating around earlier than some of these first confirmed

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<v Speaker 1>cases when the test first became available in January, because

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<v Speaker 1>there wasn't there weren't a lot of tests, and there

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<v Speaker 1>weren't a lot of labs that could do it. And

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<v Speaker 1>then later because there was a problem with the test,

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<v Speaker 1>the Public Health Authority focused testing on people who had

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<v Speaker 1>been to China or another country where there was COVID

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen spreading. So you and others may remember this, people

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<v Speaker 1>who you know in February thought they had COVID like symptoms,

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<v Speaker 1>but they hadn't traveled anywhere, and they, you know, hadn't

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<v Speaker 1>had contact with anyone who was known to have COVID nineteen.

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<v Speaker 1>Literally couldn't get a test. Now what we know is

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<v Speaker 1>there were other people. You didn't have to travel to China,

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<v Speaker 1>and there were people who weren't terribly ill. So the

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<v Speaker 1>point or one of the points here is that it

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<v Speaker 1>is the importance of having a test that's widely available,

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<v Speaker 1>and not restricting your criteria for the test that anybody

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<v Speaker 1>with symptoms or who may have had contact should be

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<v Speaker 1>able to get a test, rather than limiting it to

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<v Speaker 1>somebody who is in a place where the disease with spreading.

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<v Speaker 1>Well for now, like you said, just another piece to

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<v Speaker 1>this puzzle trying to figure out the earliest days of

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<v Speaker 1>the pandemic and everything related to it, its origins, all

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<v Speaker 1>of that we're still finding out more. Betsy McKay, Senior

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<v Speaker 1>writer at The Wall Street Journal, thank you very much

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<v Speaker 1>for joining us. It's good to be with you. Thank you.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Astar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't

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<v Speaker 1>forget the effort today's big news stories. You can check

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<v Speaker 1>me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday.

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<v Speaker 1>So follow us on iHeart Radio or wherever you get

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