
Coronavirus: Satellite traffic images may suggest virus hit Wuhan earlier - abhi3
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52975934
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troughway
I've mentioned before that I have had a doctor asking about visiting Wuhan
(here in the West) as early as November of last year. Very blank, matter of
fact sort of way. Of all the places.

However, this is an anecdote. It's meaningless. It runs counter to the HN
orthodoxy which is to flippantly dismiss anything that isn't supported by an
authoritative source and studies and citations.

I'm not sure what kind of evidence you're expecting from a country that won't
even honestly report the death toll from this.

So now we have the BBC in on this. Not surprised in the least.

~~~
vmh1928
Did you read the article? It's a study by researchers at Harvard Medical
School. They looked at satellite photos of Wuhan hospitals and saw an increase
in parking lot utilization. They also analyzed search terms used on the Biadu
search engine for occurrences of "diarrhea" and "cough". They found an
increase in both vehicle counts and searches for those terms starting in
August. I don't believe the government of China was involved and the same
government has called the study absurd. Using the volume of searches for a
particular term to detect disease outbreaks even before public health or
hospitals are aware is nothing new.

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/coronavirus-
ma...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/coronavirus-may-have-
been-in-wuhan-in-august-study-suggests)

~~~
troughway
Yes, I did the due diligence of reading the article. Did you read the study
yesterday regarding the Baidu search and the related HN post? If not, parts of
what I'm talking about will seem disconnected. But it's all linked - HN is a
terrible place to have a discussion about this topic anyway.

