The virus that would go on to ruin the vast majority of 2020 was already spreading in the United States before Christmas last year, a government study has found. The finding was made by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it suggests that the coronavirus was infecting people around the world well before it was officially identified in China. According to The Wall Street Journal, the scientists based their study on blood samples collected by the American Red Cross between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17. They reportedly found evidence of COVID-19 infection, in the form of antibodies, in 106 of 7,389 blood donations. “SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized,” the authors wrote.