Claim: People knew about Covid-19 in 2018.
Fact-check: Trade data doesn't show we knew about Covid in 2018 - Full Fact
Verdict: incorrect. confusion arose due to the fact that a trade export website changed the name of a number of medical diagnostic test exports to "covid-19 diagnostic test".
Organisation: Full Fact
Author: Abbas Panjwani
Date published: 2021-05-18T00:00:00