STANFORD, CA – The new coronavirus may not be as new as was previously thought.

That's according to Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and conservative political columnist who questions the accuracy of the COVID-19 outbreak timeline accepted by most as fact. Hanson thinks the outbreak likely started much sooner than late December of last year, when China says the outbreak began in Wuhan, and that Californians developed some degree of herd immunity through earlier exposure the virus than the rest of the country.



Patch has followed up this report with an article featuring medical experts' rebuke of Hanson's views.

New York State, the epicenter of the outbreak, has reported 32 times as many deaths per 100,000 residents as California according to CNN's latest tally as of Wednesday morning.

California has experienced 507 COVID-19-related fatalities in a state of 40 million that's roughly double the population of New York, which has reported 6,268 known coronavirus-related deaths. "Something is going on that we haven't quite found out yet," Hanson said Wednesday in an interview with KSBW 8, an NBC news affiliate in Salinas.

Hanson believes that a consistent influx of Chinese nationals visiting the Golden State – 8,000 a day by his estimation, including some arriving on direct flights from Wuhan– through California airports brought the coronavirus to the West Coast before it was identified as COVID-19.

He points to reports of an early flu season last year that he believes may have been the coronavirus, then unbeknownst to doctors.

Hanson has no background in epidemiology or biological science according to his bio page, which notes his areas of expertise are in history, international conflict and military strategy. "When you add it all up it would be naïve to think that California did not have some exposure," Hanson told KSBW 8.