Coronavirus was there in the U.S. before March

It was not until March that the U.S. and the other parts of the world were on their toes to face the frightening effects of coronavirus and take precautionary steps to stop the spread of this contagious and dangerous infection. The ‘novel coronavirus’ first sprung up in the city of Wuhan, China around January and many of the states which are affected now were not aware of the consequences of this life-threatening virus. It was almost two months later that the government of the United States implemented self-quarantine of the people with travel histories from China and issued strict travel restrictions.

However, Alessandro Vespignani, Sternberg Family Distinguished University professor, who also directs Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, said that the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 was there in the United States in January. Vespignani and his colleagues were using a model that relies on human mobility, patterns of interaction, and infection dynamics of the virus which showed that the virus was already right under our nose in January but we missed the opportunity to prevent it from spreading further. The professor says that the model was used to "simulate the arrival of infected people that were starting local transmission chains.”

According to Vespignani, it is very important to understand how the outbreak started that can help the researchers to predict any second wave or possibilities of the return of the virus. The few cases that arrived in January with no travel histories to China were side-lined as the cases of flu, winter colds, or other respiratory problems as it was the height of the flu season causing the arrival of the virus to become unnoticed. Cities like New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles showed the earliest cases in the U.S. as they are the hotspot of international travels from China.

The new data will also help the researchers to take useful decisions after the physical-distancing measures lift and prepare to resist the building of the second wave of infections.

Rubena Bose