China promotes study that found coronavirus in Italy before Wuhan

Chinese officials have been promoting a new study that claims the coronavirus could have spread undetected in Italy months before it was first discovered in Wuhan, reports the New York Post.

The National Cancer Institute (INT) in Milan found that a portion of the volunteers in a lung cancer screening trial that took place between September 2019 and March 2020 were found to have antibodies against the coronavirus. The first patient to test positive for the coronavirus in Italy was identified at the end of February.

“This shows once again that finding the source of the virus is a complex scientific matter that should be left to scientists,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, according to The Times of London. “[It] is a development process that can involve several countries. “

Giovanni Apolone, one of the study’s co-authors, told Reuters the study shows some of the antibodies were present during the first week of October, meaning they must have been infected in September.

“This is the main conclusion: people without symptoms were not only positive after serological tests, but also had antibodies capable of killing the virus,” said Apolone. “This means that the new coronavirus can circulate among the population for a long time and with a low case fatality rate not because it is disappearing, but only to rise again.”