The report's authors suggest 10 possible legal avenues for seeking compensation (ranging from filing in domestic courts to action in the International Court of Justice). The most circulated article about the report, published by Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald, had more than 754,000 social media engagements.

It's not often that a paper about alleged breaches of international law goes viral. But this report gave a shape and legitimacy to the growing calls to hold China financially accountable for the pandemic.

The idea that China should pay has taken several shapes — an international lawsuit, reparations, the waiving of debt — and spread from the fringes of the internet to some of Trump's biggest supporters, as well as politicians and media around the world. (While he's had no qualms blaming China for the coronavirus, Trump is yet to call for China to pay for COVID-19 damages.)

An early version of the idea has been circulating on the fringes of the internet for at least a month. Well-known conservative Twitter account @ComfortablySmug, previously revealed as belonging to Shashank Tripathi, tweeted on March 8: "China should pay for costs associated with Coronavirus testing, treatment and containment." (He didn't respond to interview requests.)