The Lancet: 1.3 million people in Wuhan infected with SARS-CoV-2 by April 2020

Editor: Shi Fang / Source: Voice of America / https://www.aboluowang.com/2021/0319/1570339.html  / Direct translation

A study published in the authoritative medical journal The Lancet found that as of April 2020, 6.9% of people in Wuhan have antibodies to the virus, and 82% of them have asymptomatic infections. The Chinese experts who conducted the study said that the results of the study show that a large part of the Chinese population is still not infected with the virus, so mass vaccination is needed to achieve herd immunity to prevent the recurrence of the epidemic. This figure also shows that the actual number of people infected with the CCP virus in Wuhan far exceeds the officially announced figure.

This new study is the first long-term seroepidemiological study conducted on residents of Wuhan, China. Researchers conducted antibody tests on 9,542 people from 3,556 families in 13 districts of Wuhan after Wuhan lifted the lockdown in April 2020, and then conducted antibody tests again in June and October to December 2020.

According to this paper published in the medical journal "The Lancet", among these participants, 532 people tested positive for antibodies to the Chinese Communist Party virus. After adjustment, this result is equivalent to the seroprevalence rate in the population of Wuhan. Estimated to be 6.9%. In addition, 82% of the participants who tested positive did not have any symptoms of the CCP virus.

Among those with antibodies, 40% developed neutralizing antibodies to prevent future infections in April, and these antibodies remained stable for at least nine months regardless of whether the individual had symptoms.

This study was conducted by Chinese medical researchers. The main author of the paper is Wang Chen, the dean of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, and an expert in respiratory and critical care medicine.

The English press release of The Lancet quoted Wang Chen as saying: “Assessing the proportion of people infected with the Chinese Communist Party virus and those with immune capabilities is critical to determining effective prevention and control strategies to reduce the likelihood of a future pandemic. In view of the fact that people with mild infections may not seek medical attention and those with asymptomatic infections are usually not screened, there may be large differences between reported cases of the Chinese Communist Party virus and actual infections. This has been proven by the experience and data of other countries."

The authors of the article said their findings indicate that a large part of the population is still free of infections and mass vaccination is needed to achieve herd immunity to prevent further recurrence of the pandemic.

Before the seroepidemiological study in Wuhan, seroepidemiological studies were also carried out globally, including Geneva, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, Iceland and the Netherlands. These studies try to illustrate the true infection rate in the population.

If the number of people infected is counted according to the seroprevalence rate of Wuhan population of 6.9%, this means that among the 19 million people in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province assessed by WHO, the number of people infected with the CCP virus exceeded 1.3 million in April last year. The CCP government reported more than 50,000 confirmed cases of the CCP virus in Wuhan City and less than 70,000 cases in Hubei Province.