In the midst of the current sinophobia and Trump’s claims of “shutting it down”, apparently European travel made the NYC spread worse:

As I've said before, the China travel ban was a Maginot Line – it provided a false sense of security that diverted attention from the real vulnerabilities. Instead of ramping up early testing, hospital preparedness, etc, the USG held up a leaky sieve. https://t.co/B3zOnYRJfc — Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) April 9, 2020

New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia.

“The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.

A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March.

The research revealed a previously hidden spread of the virus that might have been detected if aggressive testing programs had been put in place.

On Jan. 31, President Trump barred foreign nationals from entering the country if they had been in China during the prior two weeks.

No excuse for reporters to let this go unchallenged…



"Trump keeps claiming that he quickly banned travel from Asia and Europe due to COVID-19 but that is a brazen lie"https://t.co/8AdrhBVb6b — Joshua Holland 🔥 (@JoshuaHol) April 7, 2020

Remember this next time a Republican blames China for America's death count. https://t.co/0ndFYizApD — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) April 8, 2020

New: US intel WAS tracking rise of novel coronavirus as early as November, weeks before that information was included in Trump's daily briefing, CNN has learned.



Follows earlier reporting by ABC News & denial by Pentagon. w/ @MarquardtA & @jimsciutto https://t.co/iCPnxo07hb — Zachary Cohen (@ZcohenCNN) April 9, 2020

The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020