On January 21, 2020, the CDC reported the detection of the first person in the United States diagnosed with 2019-nCoV infection.  The case history of this 35-year-old male, who became known as patient zero, was published, and said to have returned to Washington state from Wuhan, China on 15th January. [4, 5, 6]

The CDC press release added, “While originally thought to be spreading from animal-to-person, there are growing indications that limited person-to-person spread is happening. It’s unclear how easily this virus is spreading between people.” [3]

Genome testing, confirmed by Kristian Andersen, connected “patient zero” with the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, where nearly half of initial COVID-19 deaths occurred.

The patented drug remdesivir by Gilead and which was “not yet licensed or approved anywhere globally”, was administered intravenously on day 7 of illness this first patient, by 30 January the patients symptoms had resolved, except for a mild cough.  The patient was treated with antibiotics on day 6 when pneumonia began to develop! [5]  Recovery was “attributed” to remdesivir, but the virus began to clear on day 3 (PCR Ct confirmed), and antibiotics cleared the lung infection!

A few days later China began testing remdesivir on their patients – but they failed to find a benefit.

On January 27, 2020 the CDC confirms 5 cases in the US all involved adults who traveled to Wuhan, China.  “At this time in the U.S., this virus is not spreading in the community”, thus the “immediate health risk” to the community is “low” said the CDC. An additional 73 potential cases are still under investigation.

The CDC is creating tests and laboratory guidelines “diagnostic kitsso states can perform their own testing“.