State owned Australian Broadcasting Corp says it is " still very much in the dark as to where this (COVID19) virus started spreading...we may never know": ABC denies the science, easily proven by simple GIS methods

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

The state owned Australian Broadcasting Corp declared this morning on its ABC News program:

" We are still very much in the dark as to where this (WuhanCovid) virus started spreading.....we may never know"

The report is available at the link below until 19 January 2021:

https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NU2113H008S00

The except from the relevant part of the news report has been extracted and provided above.

The WuhanCovid virus is delivered by the ABC's virus specialist Casey Briggs. As one can see from Briggs presentation, China is not even among the country's in which WuhanCovid has been detected. This is despite the fact of recent outbreaks, and lockdowns in China. As reported by AP:

More than 360 people have tested positive in a growing coronavirus outbreak south of Beijing in neighboring Hebei province.

China’s National Health Commission reported Sunday that 69 new cases had been confirmed in the latest 24-hour period, including 46 in Hebei.

The outbreak has raised particular concern because of Hebei’s proximity to the nation’s capital. Travel between the two has been restricted, with workers from Hebei having to show proof of employment in Beijing to enter the city.

Hebei has recorded 183 confirmed cases and an additional 181 asymptomatic cases over the last eight days. China does not include those who test positive but do not show symptoms in its official case count.

Brigg' reports give the impression that they are data driven. However they ignore the data, and lack even simple  analysis of the type presented below. Little wonder that the ABC is " still very much in the dark as to where this (COVID19) virus started spreading".

TO BE READ WITH 

Modelling and mapping of the COVID-19 trajectory and pandemic paths at global scale: A geographer’s perspective

Abstract: 
In December 2019, the virus SARS-CoV-2 responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The virus started to spread from China and dispersed over the rest of the world. In March 2020, WHO (World Health Organization) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The transmission path of the pandemic was accelerated by different types of transportation. With complete analysis of spatial data, population density, types of traffic networks, and their properties, the spatial distribution of COVID-19 was estimated. GIS (Geographical Information System), numerical methods, and software for network analysis were used in this research to model scenarios of virus distribution on a global scale. The analyzed data included air, railway, marine, and road traffic. In the pandemic research, numerous models of possible trajectory of viruses can be created. Many have a stochastic character. This study includes all countries in the world affected by the COVID19 up to date. In this study, GIS methods such as buffer, interpolations, and numerical analysis were used in order to estimate and visualize ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation. According to the availability of new data, trajectory of virus paths was estimated. On the other hand, sparsely populated areas with poorly developed and small traffic networks (and isolated island territories) tend to be less or not affected as shown by the model. This low-cost approach can be used in order to define important measures that need to be addressed and implemented in order to successfully mitigate the implications of COVID-19 not only on global, but local and regional scales as well.