--- title: "China May Have Identified Patient Zero in the Coronavirus Outbreak" description: "The South China Morning Post is now reporting that China may have identified \"patient zero\" — the first human, in other words, to catch the virus." date: "2020-03-13" modified: "2020-03-13" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/patient-zero-coronavirus-china" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "health" - "viruses" --- # China May Have Identified Patient Zero in the Coronavirus Outbreak ![The South China Morning Post is now reporting that China may have identified "patient zero" — the first human, in other words, to catch the virus.]() *\Image: Andreas Lischka via Pixabay/Futurism\* The COVID-19 outbreak didn't make a huge international splash until late January, when China [quarantined the entire city of Wuhan](), where the epidemic had emerged — now, evidence is emerging that the disease started spreading in late 2019. Notably, the *South China Morning Post* is [now reporting that]() Chinese authorities may have identified "patient zero" — the first human, in other words, to catch the SARS-CoV-2 virus — in an infection that dates back to mid-November. The scoop is already making waves in the scientific community. Here's Mount Sinai researcher Florian Krammer: https://twitter.com/florian_krammer/status/1238261797146288128 According to government data per the *Morning* *Post*, the first known person to catch the bug is a 55-year-old man from Hubei Province. That's a tantalizing detail, one that could help scientists identify the source of the novel virus. The predominant theory among researchers is that it spread to [humans from an animal](), possibly a bat. But, the newspaper makes clear, it's also possible that there are human cases of the disease that date back even earlier than the aforementioned Hubei man. Critics say that ever-earlier reported cases of the coronavirus show that the Chinese government was more concerned with controlling the narrative of the outbreak than mitigating its spread. Here's a former *New York Times* reporter in Hong Kong: https://twitter.com/dktatlow/status/1238441411806212101 And others in the research community, like this nuclear physicist at the Large Hadron Collider, are realizing how close they came to catching the virus. https://twitter.com/dvperepelitsa/status/1238465923725623298 One thing we now know for sure: This outbreak was brewing long before it made international news. ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()