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Original poster

Anyone else got this horrendous cough and cold?

180 replies

Pantalaimon88 · 19/11/2019 19:51

I’ve had it since Thursday. Coughing so hard I am urging, lungs feel like they’re being squeezed and I can’t smell a thing. I also feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.

Apparently loads of people have this awful virus at the moment. Is anyone else here suffering too and can share a moan, tea and sympathy?

OP posts:
PicsInRed · 21/07/2020 07:40

French researchers have found covid markers in chest films from November and are looking at October. Covid has also been found in sewage samples from Italty, taken in December (when it mast already have been widespread to be detectable in samples).

I think some are invested in it not having been here earlier as it's too frightening to think that our authorities were that off the ball. Sadly though, it was, and they were.

megletthesecond · 21/07/2020 07:43

I was ill at the end of November with the same thing. I'd been to Harry potter studios mid November. Nice, close contact indoor venue to spread germs.....

eurochick · 21/07/2020 07:44

[quote runbummyrun]@eurochick because they were not testing. The spike only came as we were able to test [/quote]
I was talking about the spike in the number of deaths - nothing to do with testing. There is a very clear spike in March/April.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General health
MsTSwift · 21/07/2020 07:46

This was dh and I in January. We are not often ill but were both knocked out for the entire month. Dh had Covid symptoms I had extremely heavy cold. We wonder if we had it

PicsInRed · 21/07/2020 07:52

There is a very clear spike in March/April.

When it hit the non working and non mobile elderly and become endemic in care homes.

Delatron · 21/07/2020 08:12

We forget how hard it was to get a test. Doctors and nurses in hospitals couldn’t get tests! My doctor friend at Hillingdon had it in Feb (conformed only by antibody test recently): he couldn’t get a test in Feb.

They were only testing people admitted to hospital with pneumonia symptoms. We have no idea what community spread was like even in Feb/March when it was everywhere.

I do think it was here a lot earlier than we thought. I think it hit the younger, mobile population first. Some suggestions Bristol was a first harder hit area (they then didn’t have higher cases in the peak April months as many had already had it).

Think students returning from China, businessmen returning from conferences. This virus doesn’t have a high death rate. It’s asymptomatic it 50-70% of people. Even some elderly people don’t actually suffer that badly. I think it took a while to start taking hold in the over 85s..

Delatron · 21/07/2020 08:14

The WHO has also encouraged countries to go back and look at X-rays in hospital from last year.... doesn’t seem to be happening here..

boredboredboredboredbored · 21/07/2020 08:19

I had all of these symptoms in January. I laid in bed for 2 days with a temp of 39c, I was hallucinating, coughing, just wiped out.
I had the flu jab (I'm a nurse) and am very rarely ill (touch wood). I was convinced I'd had CV but I had the antibody test recently and it was negative.

My colleague no symptoms at all was positive. My mum also tested positive (symptoms of CV in April). It's so hard to tell as the symptoms are so varied or non at all!

ilovebagpuss · 21/07/2020 08:24

My colleagues had what we thought was Covid back in Nov/Dec however the one lady moved to a post in the NHS and had the antibody test with a negative response. We were all convinced she and the office had had it but perhaps not.
Of course it doesn’t mean others have not had it but it was interesting.

Buddyelf · 21/07/2020 08:25

This thread! Shock I posted on a recent one discussing whether Covid had been since last year and mentioned being ill in November with an awful cough. Felt awful and I never get coughs when I get a cold. It was so chesty and took a good while to shift. My eldest was coughing around that time as well. How interesting!

Delatron · 21/07/2020 08:54

I think the antibody test in many cases only shows antibodies for a few months. So I think we may never know for many cases. Especially mild ones.

It would be great if hospitals could go back and look at x-rays. Covid lungs are very distinctive. If we could understand when this virus actually arrived here it could really help our understanding of it.

Giggorata · 21/07/2020 08:55

I went to a multinational conference at the end of October 2019 and was ill with whatever virus it was throughout November and December.
No one knew about the new Corona virus at the time, let alone developed any tests.

I had the symptoms of Covid 19, including loss of smell and gastric upset. The coughing until sick and being unable to breathe... I had to sleep sitting up. I too got prescribed an inhaler for the first time. It was scary.
My symptoms were actually worse than when I’d had (bog standard) pneumonia.
Do the stats suggest that what is supposed to be the non Covid 19 winter virus led to more “flu deaths“ or increased admissions to hospital?
I didn’t hear any news reports about it (but then I was probably too ill to listen to the news)

Delatron · 21/07/2020 09:10

I think there was speculation on another thread that a low flu year this year may have masked the increase in pneumonia cases that were caused by a virus (e.g COVID) that wasn’t flu...

Moonmelodies · 21/07/2020 09:15

Perhaps these were all Covid-18.

iamusuallybeingunreasonable · 21/07/2020 11:49

I went to a global conference in late January, thousands of people, came home rough as you like all of February, COVID symptoms... there's no way this started only in March, some of my colleagues had similar in December, these are young people who TRS rl a lot, it floored them

mosscarpet · 21/07/2020 12:04

wow! I also started reading without noticing the dates and was screaming "you need to get testeed for COVID, what is wrong with you all!"

Saucery · 21/07/2020 12:04

I remember looking at this thread because there was something awful going round at work (school) - so much so that the SLT notified it to the local health authority (thought to be Strep A or B iirc?).
Staff and pupils were flaking out all over the place. Adults off with suspected pneumonia who were fit and active with no risk factors.
Then DS came down it with over Christmas, 6 days after the end of term, so classic incubation period.

It might well not have been, but if it can be researched then it would be fascinating to see any results.
I have a family member who was hospitalised in Feb with the chest symptoms. Wonder if they are reviewing their chest x rays?

formerbabe · 21/07/2020 12:05

I was ill in January with what thought was a bad flu accompanied by a horrendous cough. I've never been so ill. I too believe this is the second wave we're in.

GoldenOmber · 21/07/2020 12:21

There was a nasty cough going round last year. I had it in Sept/Oct but I don’t think it was Covid (partly because of the date, more because I came down with much more typical Covid symptoms in mid-March).

But it also seems like Covid was bopping around at low levels in several places in Italy and Spain and France for a few months before getting a foothold, so it definitely seems possible there were cases here towards the end of last year.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 21/07/2020 13:19

@Delatron

We forget how hard it was to get a test. Doctors and nurses in hospitals couldn’t get tests! My doctor friend at Hillingdon had it in Feb (conformed only by antibody test recently): he couldn’t get a test in Feb.

They were only testing people admitted to hospital with pneumonia symptoms. We have no idea what community spread was like even in Feb/March when it was everywhere.

I do think it was here a lot earlier than we thought. I think it hit the younger, mobile population first. Some suggestions Bristol was a first harder hit area (they then didn’t have higher cases in the peak April months as many had already had it).

Think students returning from China, businessmen returning from conferences. This virus doesn’t have a high death rate. It’s asymptomatic it 50-70% of people. Even some elderly people don’t actually suffer that badly. I think it took a while to start taking hold in the over 85s..

That’s the testing for the symptoms. There was another strand of sampling testing in the community and hospitals to see what the situation was like in the community.

And we have a well regarded testing surveillance system for winter viruses. If COVID was around in any extent last year it managed to avoid being detected in hospitals, care homes, schools, prisons, the GP swabbing scheme and the respiratory centres in the surveillance testing. There’s no evidence of any coronavirus, let alone the novel one circulating widely before January.

Truzza · 21/07/2020 13:32

@megletthesecond I was at tte studios too and was horribly ill 5 days later!!! In early December

Delatron · 21/07/2020 13:37

Well it’s very strange that it has been found in France in November yet didn’t manage to make it over here until the start of February.

I really don’t remember any mass community testing back in February. The government had zero clue what the community spread was back then. Hence Cheltenham going ahead and saying large events were ok.
Maybe April we started mass community testing...

Delatron · 21/07/2020 13:40

And I’m sorry if I don’t hold much faith in our ‘surveillance’ testing. We let many people leave hospitals and go back in to care homes without testing them. Shocking. We didn’t have a clue what was going on.

SecretWitch · 21/07/2020 13:49

My son returned from a trip to China in mid January. He developed a sore throat, fever and dry cough. He recovered quickly (age 23)

I became ill a week after he returned. My symptoms included almost non stop dry cough, stomach cramps, loss of taste and fatigue. I was not really well until the middle of March.

Neither of us were able to get a Covid test.

Butterbeeeen · 21/07/2020 14:00

I have said this for months. I work in a school so I often get colds and things but the bug I had at xmas was the worst iv ever felt in my life. Was at the gp the day before xmas eve begging for antibiotics and painkillers as It was xmas and I'm a mum and had to get on with it. Couldn't breathe, couldn't sleep, raging temp.