A very Covid-like disease was seen in 2012, but it didn’t spread. There also appears to have been a Covid-like disease in Wuhan in Q4 2019, maybe even Q3. It just didn’t transmit well enough to draw notice. Computer modelling shows the odds are it would die out. It probably made the species jump several times but didn’t transmit well enough between humans to do much. What blew up in Wuhan is almost certainly the first variant, not the base version.
The story doesn’t add up. And the Daily Fail isn’t a source.