COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019
A post shared on Facebook claims a patent for a COVID-19 testing system was issued in 2015. Verdict: False The original patent application was for a biometric testing and processing system not specific to COVID-19. The COVID-19 testing patent was filed in May 2020. Fact Check: The post includes a photo of what appears to be a patent application for “System and Method for Testing for COVID-19.” The patent’s abstract reads, “A method is provided for acquiring and transmitting biometric data (e.g., vital signs) of a user, where the data is analyzed to determine whether the user is suffering from a viral infection, such as COVID-19.” Text accompanying the image reads, “here is a patent from 2015……….yes it was all planned.” While the priority date of the patent is Oct.13,2015, the actual patent shown in the Facebook image is not from then. The priority date is the earliest date of a filing in a family of patent applications, not the date a specific patent was published, patent attorney Vic Lin wrote in the Patent Trademark Blog.
