Coronavirus case from December discovered in France

[Maleficent 6]

If the virus had arrived earlier, we would have known. Humans have no natural immunity to this new virus, which is why it’s spreading quickly, infecting millions and killing thousands. That’s evident in what’s going on in New York right now. If it had arrived in fall of 2019, and we were all living our lives as normal, we would’ve had New York back in fall of 2019. There’s no reason why this virus would have spread undetected for months before wreaking the havoc it has in march. 

[StuckInMyMind 5,930]

My mum said she heard of a case in our local hospital in October when my dad was in hospital

[Luc 4,776]

It doesn't really add up. The virus spreads very quickly. Okay, let's assume we can't trust data from China - I personally think there is at least some merit to their data, but sure. The virus spreads quickly enough to, in principle, get a million infected within a month in one big city. This has happened pretty much everywhere the virus arrived without a lockdown. If this person had no links to China, it means that the virus was already spreading in his community. In the period December-March (before the lockdown, normal life) there would've had to have been millions of people infected and tens of thousands dying in France alone. Unless the virus managed to be contained somehow, which is very, very unlikely (as evidenced by the spread these past two months). I really do trust the Guardian as a source, but this stuff just doesn't add up. The spread based on data in China, Iran, Italy adds up much better with the figures we see and the similar patterns in how quickly it spreads and how many deaths it leads to.