Coronavirus was spreading in the US by December 17, study finds

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Coronavirus was likely spreading in much of the U.S. last December - weeks before China told the officially recognized the new virus, a new study suggests. 

Blood collected by the Red Cross between December 13 and January 17 was later sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be tested for antibodies to coronavirus. 

Testing revealed antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19 in 39 samples from blood donated between December 13 and December 16. Those donations were made in California, Oregon, and Washington. 

Another 67 samples taken between December 30 and January 17 from donors in the Midwest and Northeast were positive for antibodies, according to the Wall Street Journal.  

It comes as documents leaked to CNN reveal that China underreported the number of infections there by the thousands, and made 'politically motivated errors in how they handled it,' Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the outlet.

The first U.S. case of coronavirus was not reported until January 19.  

It was only 12 day earlier, on January 8, that the World Health Organization (WHO) said the bizarre pneumonia sickening people in China was likely

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