I think the leading theory, here's another: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanis...

A shrimp vendor at the Wuhan seafood market reported symptoms starting Dec. 10, so unless someone finds earlier cases elsewhere, I think that's as good a place as any to call the starting point.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/cor...

1. The 1918 Flu origin is still up for debate, in my opinion the China origin theory is still the most plausible, but we'd need to find a corpse that died from the virus in 1917 to prove that it was the migration of laborers to the French frontlines.

2. China is probably the country best equipped at "keeping it under wraps".

3. There's many reports and tweets of it outbreaking in early December and the CPC covering it up for over a month.

Mid January they were still saying it wasn't transmissible and refused to shut down the market. They let at least 5 million come and leave the city.

They let a doctor die from it that blew the whistle on them.

Then they tried to blame it on US troops.

Given how contagious it is and how much faster information moves today, that is highly unlikely.