Five years after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, the World Health Organization is still reporting deaths from the virus.
More than 3,000 people died in the last month, adding to the more than 7 million deaths since the pandemic began.
In the fall of 2019, many of the top stories for U.S. news outlets had to do with China.
“I have a good relationship with China. We’ll see what happens, but I’m very happy right now,” President Donald Trump said on Nov. 19, 2019 amid trade negotiations with Beijing. “If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher.”
NEW BAT CORONAVIRUS DISCOVERED IN CHINA SPARKS PANDEMIC CONCERNS
A rapid and sustained increase in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. prompted millions of people to take precautions while in public. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
On the other side of the globe, protesters in Hong Kong were objecting to China’s interference in the region’s government. Trump signed a bill supporting the pro-democracy demonstrations. Back in Washington, the Smithsonian National Zoo’s beloved panda, Bei Bei, was preparing to move to a new habitat in central China, but in the background, a much bigger story was taking place.
Also, in the fall of 2019, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were studying how mice responded to SARs and MERs-related coronaviruses. A National Intelligence Director report noted the lab maintains one of the world’s largest repositories of bat samples.
It stated, “Teams separately used transgenic mouse models to better understand how the viruses infect humans as well as related vaccine and therapeutics research.”
“This laboratory that worked on bat coronaviruses was undertaking work, which on the face of it was quite important for understanding these viruses, but had some risks,” said Stanford microbiology professor David Relman in January 2020.
During that time, several researchers at the institute fell ill with cold or flu-like symptoms, but none were severe…
