Huge—the #SARSCoV2 coronavirus was identified in a 4 year old in Milan in November 2019, and had *no travel history*. They retested it again and again to make sure. This moves back the date of first case by ~3 months, and corroborates wastewater positive tests too. #COVID19 https://twitter.com/alinouriphd/status/1337042770591092741

2) In December 2019, Milan and Turin both found #SARSCoV2 in their wastewater. This earlier study from June. People weren’t sure what to make of it, and there was no proof of human infection that long ago. But now there is proof^ https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1273941929970020355

3) This also corroborates the coronavirus was in the US blood supply in mid Dec 2019, according to CDC analysis. https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1333595921960067072

4) Although some question the CDC blood analysis, it was conducted by the team leader of CDC’s respiratory viruses immunology. Not a random study. And peer reviewed. https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1333805757180104705

5) To be clear, the Milan 4 year old’s sample was collected on Dec 5th, but he was already very sick for 2 weeks before then. And the sample matched many strains worldwide, not just Wuhan. Thus the study couldn’t determine geographic origin. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-4632_article