Controversy: COVID-19 might have originated outside of Wuhan in Italy, a new study says!

Until now, China was accused of having originated and spread the deadly coronavirus to the world and making it into a pandemic form. Now China has done a study and states that it is actually Italy that started the pandemic. It claims that Italy was harboring the early and hidden form of this disease before it spread to China and then to the world. 

China and the new study on the origin of COVID-19

Officials from Beijing are pushing forth a new study that states that the virus was already in Europe as early as September 2019. Hence, China that started having the virus in December 2019 is not the birthplace of coronavirus, as is widely claimed by all. The virus spread widely in Wuhan in China in the last month of the year 2019 and this was three months after it already was circulating in Europe. 

Coronavirus [Source: Pinterest]

Prior to this, China had also said that Spain was responsible for the origin and the spread of the virus. Besides, they had also pointed their fingers at the USA Military. The USA Military had gone to Wuhan in October 2019 for the Military World Games. And China claims that this was the time that the virus reached Wuhan and spread there. 

National Cancer Institute study

The new study has been published by the National Cancer Institute. It reveals that the virus probably started in Italy and not Wuhan. And Chinese state media is pushing forth this theory to clear its name from the blame game that started with the pandemic. China's foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said: 

“This once again shows that tracing the virus’s source is a complex scientific question that should be left to scientists,”

NCI, Milan [Source: Wikipedia]

Zhao added: 

“[It] is a developing process that can involve multiple countries.”

Even WHO has admitted that the virus might have been silently and unnoticed spreading somewhere else before it finally was detected in Wuhan.  

Skepticism on the new study

But not are in agreement with the findings of this new study. People are still skeptical of the origin of the virus and want to continue to assume that Wuhan started it all. Giovanne Apolone who works at the National Cancer Institute in Milan said: 

“We know that China delayed announcing its outbreak so there is no telling when it started there, and China has very strong commercial links with northern Italy,”

COVID-19 and Italy [Source: CGTN]

Wherever the infectious disease started, the fact is that it has engulfed the whole world and led to severe misery and economic downslide for all. So instead of indulging in the blame game, can we all move towards finding a way to control this malady? Let the scientists continue to work on knowing where exactly the virus started and let the answer remain solely for academic purposes. 

Also, read on https://lifensocietyblog.blogspot.com/2020/11/Retaliative%20politics-fickle%20people-mature%20humans-chine-india.html