An unpublished study by Harvard Medical School in Boston suggests that COVID-19 was already present in China in August 2019, so three months before the official warning was given.
This hypothesis would be supported by satellite images from the parking lots of 5 hospitals in Wuhan and research on the Chinese browser Baidu: compared to the same period of the previous year the number of cars in a hospital parking lot would have grown by 67%; at the same time, there would have been a dizzying increase in internet searches related to coronavirus symptoms.
This controversial research has been described by the Chinese authorities as ridiculous.
Meanwhile, the tension between China and Australia has escalated, with the Asian giant advising its citizens not to travel Down Under for educational or tourism purposes, claiming that there has been a sharp rise in racist incidents in Australia aimed at the population of Asian origin.
We discussed this issue with our correspondent from Beijing, Gabriele Battaglia.
