That's one theory. Another is it came from China from the transport of 96,000 laborers to the French frontlines.

There was a respiratory disease outbreak in China in 1917 that had symptoms identical to the Spanish Flu.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanis...

Isn't that one theory? Or is that generally accepted as the leading theory.

I think the leading theory, here's another: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanis...

I wonder if, like with the 1918 pandemic, we'll find later that the first cases were somewhere other than China, but that place was better at keeping it under wraps.

A shrimp vendor at the Wuhan seafood market reported symptoms starting Dec. 10, so unless someone finds earlier cases elsewhere, I think that's as good a place as any to call the starting point.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/cor...

https://www.foxnews.com/world/coronavirus-investigators-one-... Reports of a 70+ year old that had the disease on Nov. 17th. Patient zero probably originated in October or thereabouts, and was probably never tested for it.

Better article: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coro...

But website has a touch of ad cancer.

1. The 1918 Flu origin is still up for debate, in my opinion the China origin theory is still the most plausible, but we'd need to find a corpse that died from the virus in 1917 to prove that it was the migration of laborers to the French frontlines.

2. China is probably the country best equipped at "keeping it under wraps".

3. There's many reports and tweets of it outbreaking in early December and the CPC covering it up for over a month.

Mid January they were still saying it wasn't transmissible and refused to shut down the market. They let at least 5 million come and leave the city.

They let a doctor die from it that blew the whistle on them.

Then they tried to blame it on US troops.

Given how contagious it is and how much faster information moves today, that is highly unlikely.