CDC Confirms 1st Coronavirus Fatality Occurred February 6, Weeks Earlier than Thought

[mystery-ak]

First American coronavirus deaths took place weeks before initially thought
By Reid Wilson and Aris Folley - 04/22/20 07:31 AM EDT

The first American to die of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has become a global pandemic, succumbed weeks earlier than initially believed, officials in California said late Tuesday.

The Santa Clara Medical Examiner-Coroner said autopsies on two people who died in early and mid-February showed they had been infected by the virus. Samples sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested positive on Tuesday.

Until the new revelations, the first COVID-19 death had been identified as a man in his 50s in Washington state who died Feb. 29.

The two people died at home on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17, making them the earliest-known victims of the coronavirus in the United States, the Santa Clara County public health department confirmed in a statement on Tuesday

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494042-first-us-coronavirus-death-occurred-in-california-in-february-autopsy

[PeteS in CA]

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Santa-Clara-county-coronavirus-February-deaths-15217371.php

Autopsy: Santa Clara patient died of COVID-19 on Feb. 6 — 23 days before 1st U.S. death declared
By Amy Graff, SFGATE Published 10:49 pm PDT, Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Health officials said Tuesday that new autopsy results show a patient in Santa Clara, Calif., died of COVID-19 on Feb. 6, several weeks before the United States declared its first novel coronavirus death.

The finding suggests that the virus was circulating in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier than previously thought.
...
Now, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department has identified two individuals who died of COVID-19 at home on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17. The health department said samples were sent to the CDC and the results were shared Tuesday.

Details about the February 6 death are kind of scattered across multiple sources. Apparently, the person had not traveled to China, but was infected by contact/proximity with an infected person. Apparently, the typical time from infection to death (for those who do die) is 2-3 weeks. So working back from this person's date of death, (s)he was probably infected in the January 16-23 time frame. Obviously the person who unwittingly passed on the infection had entered the US somewhat earlier. These timings demonstrate 2 things, IMO:

1. Trump was correct to buck advice from WHO and denunciations by the Dems and MSM and start screening arriving passengers on 1/17 and shutting down China travel on 1/31.

2. Shutting down travel in early January would, hypothetically, been even better, but what was "known" at the time was China's and WHO's lies that human-human transmission had not happened. Their lies cost lives, and not just in the US.

[mystery-ak]

Edwin Mora 22 Apr 2020

Autopsy results confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the first American to die of the novel coronavirus illness (COVID-19) currently plaguing the globe perished on February 6, weeks earlier than initially believed, health officials in California’s Santa Clara County revealed on Tuesday.

Dr. Sara Cody, a public health officer in Santa Clara County declared, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

    What it means is we had coronavirus circulating in the community much earlier than we had documented and much earlier than we had thought. Those deaths probably represent many, many more infections. And so there had to be chains of transmission that go back much earlier.

more
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/22/cdc-confirms-1st-coronavirus-fatality-occurred-february-6-weeks-earlier-than-thought/

[mystery-ak]

 Healthy 57-year-old woman was first confirmed coronavirus death in US

By Yaron Steinbuch

April 23, 2020 | 8:12am

A seemingly healthy 57-year-old San Jose woman has emerged as the first person in the US to have died of the coronavirus — with her Feb. 6 death coming almost three weeks before two fatalities were reported, according to a report.

Patricia Dowd, a manager for a semiconductor company, died suddenly after she had appeared to recover from flu-like symptoms, the LA Times reported. Her death was at first believed to be from a heart attack.

But this week, authorities told her family that she tested positive for COVID-19, making her the first confirmed fatality from the illness in the nation.

Previously, the first documented fatality was reported on Feb. 29 in Kirkland, Washington, a Seattle suburb, though officials later attributed two Feb. 26 deaths to the bug.

more
https://nypost.com/2020/04/23/san-jose-woman-57-was-first-confirmed-coronavirus-death-in-us/

[sneakypete]

Healthy 57-year-old woman was first confirmed coronavirus death in US

Un,huh. She was healthy,yet she died.

Suicide?

[PeteS in CA]

Un,huh. She was healthy,yet she died.

Suicide?

@sneakypete, an autopsy was done and testing confirmed she died of Covid-19.

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One import of this death and date is that about the only possible way this coronavirus could possibly have been kept out of the US is if China had been fully truthful with the world in late December - a week or two earlier than 12/31 concerning the outbreak, and somewhere around Christmas when doctors in Wuhan were warning each other to take precautions when treating patients with certain symptoms.

China lied and people died, hundreds of thousands worldwide.

[Elderberry]

This was posted yesterday, but in the long Covid Thread.

Re: Coronavirus, comprehensive and updates discussion 2

Autopsies find first U.S. coronavirus death occurred in early February, weeks earlier than previously thought

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/autopsies-find-first-us-coronavirus-death-occurred-in-early-february-weeks-earlier-than-previously-thought/ar-BB131mhb