British scholars: the new coronavirus may have long been "sleeping" in many parts of the world

, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A report on the website of the Daily Telegraph quoted Oxford University scholar Dr. Tom Jefferson as saying that there is growing evidence that the new coronavirus existed in other parts of the world before the outbreak in Asia. The virus may have been "sleeping" in different parts of the world until the environment changed.
in this article, Jefferson, who has a medical background, cites evidence that a team led by the University of Barcelona in Spain announced on June 26th that a team of researchers had detected the new coronavirus in a sample of Barcelona wastewater collected in March last year. This time node is much earlier than the first related case reported globally.
jefferson says many viruses around the world are "sleeping" and don't become active until there's a suitable environment, which means they come and disappear fast. "We need to start studying the ecology of the virus to understand its origin and how it mutates."
believes the new coronavirus could be transmitted through sewers or shared toilets, not just droplets. "There's a lot of evidence that a lot of the virus is present in sewage in many places; there's a lot of evidence that the virus is spreading through excreta." The spread of sewers and recent small outbreaks in meat factories in some countries should be investigated in depth.