What they meant was there wasn’t an outbreak reported, not that there wasn’t one. Here’s a clearer source (same one as well) as long as someone else asked for one too.
The NPR article also has no evidence for an earlier outbreak. They just report what the North’s government stated, and add that the reader shouldn’t believe them.
Sure they share a border with China, but China had COVID pretty well controlled for a significant portion of the pandemic. That combined with the DPRK’s survival strategy of self-reliance make it seem plausible to me that they were clear of it until the vastly more contagious variant became dominant.
So far, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence to the contrary.
It didn’t outbreak until 8 May 2022 according to your source, so they made it until after Omicron evolved.
What they meant was there wasn’t an outbreak reported, not that there wasn’t one. Here’s a clearer source (same one as well) as long as someone else asked for one too.
The NPR article also has no evidence for an earlier outbreak. They just report what the North’s government stated, and add that the reader shouldn’t believe them.
Sure they share a border with China, but China had COVID pretty well controlled for a significant portion of the pandemic. That combined with the DPRK’s survival strategy of self-reliance make it seem plausible to me that they were clear of it until the vastly more contagious variant became dominant.
So far, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence to the contrary.
Let me ask you something for the sake of discussion. What do you consider evidence of an outbreak?