Covid Origins
A Brief History of the Early Pandemic
Below are a few dates and descriptions corresponding to certain major events during the pandemic as well as what was the first mention of a covid origin theory circulating online I saw in my research. The point is not to teach about the pandemic but to put in perspective the relative rapidity that these origin stories started cropping up.
December 31st 2019: The World Health Organization is informed of a number of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China of unknown cause (“CDC Museum Covid-19 Timeline.”).
Wuhan City (Photo Credit: https://www.science.org/content/article/chinese-researchers-reveal-draft-genome-virus-implicated-wuhan-pneumonia-outbreak)
January 7th 2020: Chinese authorities identify novel coronavirus as causative agent in pneumonia cases (“CDC Museum Covid-19 Timeline.”).
Coronavirus (Image Credit: https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus)
January 20th 2020: First confirmed case of novel coronavirus in the United States (“CDC Museum Covid-19 Timeline.”).
January 26th 2020: Rumors begin circulating online that the novel coronavirus is a bioweapon unleashed by the Chinese government (Gerts).
March 15th 2020: By this time US states have begun to shutdown in response to the spread of Covid (“CDC Museum Covid-19 Timeline.”).
NYC after lockdowns (Photo Credit: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/upshot/coronavirus-four-benchmarks-reopening.html)