Do you remember this Covid news footage?

[Sitonyourdressmavis]

Chatting to SIL last night and we were remembering news footage we watched before the Christmas of Covid when the news was coming out of China about this virus. We clearly remember watching as a family news footage (would have been on BBC normal news not online) from China of people collapsing and fitting in the streets then being zipped up on stretchers and body bags and loaded into a black and yellow van by hazmat suited doctors/army. We all clearly remember this , it was not a film. What was this footage? Covid didn't present like that at all? We remember being really scared. SiL is a nurse and we remember her saying "what the hell is this thing"
Anyone else remember this footage?

I remember the footage, pretty sure I would have seen it on the news as back then I wasn’t really on sm (oh those were the days!!), but no idea of the timeline

I wonder if you can do an archive search

Why do you think that?

Does it specifically mention the mystery/new/Chinese virus? Or could it be talking about any other virus? There was a bit of a flu spike in December 2019 (nowhere near the 2010 levels, but higher than the previous year and, although it turned out to be nothing much, in December nobody knew if it would keep going up).

The school letter definitely exists . I'll see if my friend still has it electronically. My diary is in the garden office so I'll go out there later

Discussing the virus in China on Christmas Day, I’m intrigued maybe some were. It hadn’t been named yet as you say.

The name Covid isn't get coined until 2020, it was just referred to as a mystery virus / a flu and potential mentions of SARS / bird flu, all very nondescript.

I seem to remember early on thoughts od Pangolins being the source.

Covid was coined, not sure who by, and is a daft name as its short for Coronavirus Disease, and doesn't really narrow the field, there are lots of coronavirus's out there.

No, you didn't '100%' have Covid. In fact, you almost certainly didn't have it.

It's true that by late January, it's possible that in a certain selection of people who had travelled, they may have had Covid, presenting as a flu-type condition, without any means of knowing it was Covid, having any diagnostics about this and so on.

The cases were not sufficiently in existence, and had not travelled beyond China, at any point in 2019 for you to have it. The first confirmed cases of Covid in the UK were 31 January - Chinese nationals who travelled to York. Obviously there could have been earlier cases, unconfirmed, but you would have had to have had a direct travel connection to China, and it wouldn't have been in December.

So you think the BBC broadcast a hoax video of random unnamed virus on the main news, before they knew that a new virus existed? And now they have deleted all evidence?

This is not very likely is it?

But I have enjoyed the thread, so thank you @Sitonyourdressmavis

I remember seeing footage in China of

-People dropping down dead

-Medical authorities dressed in hasmaz suits breaking down doors and dragging people suspected of having Covid away

-Mass graves being built and lines and lines of coffins waiting to be buried.

It was acting. Staged propaganda.

Yes, I remember watching it on the news. I tried to watch it again and couldn’t find it on YouTube. I don’t think it was called Covid at the time just a new disease, there was footage of people falling flat out. I was aware of a new disease spreading in December 2019 as I had started a new job and my new boss was going to Italy on holiday in early January and I remember thinking that wasn’t a good idea.

I am all over alternative news though so it was just me and Japanese tourists wearing a full on medical mask in London. The whole thing was extremely strange.

The level of misinformation on this thread is staggering.

It was coined by the WHO: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

They did so in line with their disease naming protocol.

The above link distinguishes between the disease name, and the virus name. They are distinct. COVID 19 refers to the disease caused by the virus, which is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2) (a bit of a mouthful, hence lack of use). There was an emphasis on not using SARS (even though it's correct - it was a severe acute respiratory syndrome) as it made the public think of previous SARS outbreaks which wasn't helpful.

I’m saying that possibly there was a hoax video, or a video made for another reason, it was circulated maliciously or misleadingly and somehow the BBC showed it in the wrong context and that the OP saw it. Although the BBC famously doesn’t show anything it hasn’t fact checked so it isn’t likely.

Obviously I have no actual idea, but just trying to come up with a theory that fits OP’s recollection and diary entry. Weirder things have happened.

It was without doubt on BBC news in the December - I went for pre Christmas drinks with a group of friends, two of whom are scientists at PHE and someone asked them "what's going on in china then?" which lead to 10 to 15 mins of discussion.

It wasn't called covid at the time, and the outbreak was centred on Wuhan - that was all pre 2020.

Its called Covid19 because it started in 2019!!!

I did read durring covid that there had been several hundred miles north I think of wuhan in Oct/Nov a viral outbreak - there were looking for link but while it was a coronavirus it wasn't the covid virus in the end.

I heard nothing on news or other sources till Feb/March and nothing that worried us IL went aboard and was surprised DD2 school trip was canceled.

We did have a cold that absolutely dropped us left us weak for ages in Jan/Feb.

Did wonder later it it could have been covid - was firmly told by some posters that was ridulous - except DH a lecture and several students he taught were from wuhan region and had been back over christmas and some of his collgeues in department he shared an office with had been to a confernce in area as well - then we were also in an area hit early and hard suggesting it was in our city before other locations. BBC did find some much ealier possible cases but while I accept we'll never know - when we did get covid wasn't anywhere near as bad as that cold.

it's hard to over-state how completely wrong you are!

You believe now you had this information - you simply didn't have information about any concerns about Italy in early January because there were none then. The first case confirmed was 31 January; while there may have been earlier unconfirmed cases, there was no known concern in early January like you suggest.

All of this information is publicly available and verifiable.

It really really wasn't there been several posters who have linked to the first broadcast on the BBC mentioning the virus in January.

I remember it too. I was watching it unfold in China and other countries on the news for a couple of months before it came over here. The footage came out, of that, and hospitals in places like Italy, and people on here were still downplaying it saying that people were overreacting and we’d never have a lockdown here…

I can remember the reports too OP. Covid wasn't mentioned as it wasn't known then. But there were reports in December. DH and I watched them and wondered if it was another bird flu/swine flu strain.
We thought it was a news item and not something that would affect us.

Re timelines it is worth remembering that all the school ski trips still took place in the Feb half term. (Hence the Italian link being a big spreader)

We went to London with the dc and went to WBS in the Feb half term - there were no restrictions or worries about travel at all at the time (but it was less than a month until the first lockdown!) We queued at the studios and were in the big foyer etc with loads of others all squeezed in.

Remember that A&E staff were only screening for students who had visited certain areas of mainland China for their NY for ages - not screening for travel pr other areas. And no NHS staff were supplied with or expected to wear much PPE before Easter even.

Your recollections re timings are wrong.

If it was on the BBC News before Christmas in December 2019, people would be able to share proof of the reports. But so far no one has been able to do so. Perhaps you can be the first to share a link to them?

The virus was inotially identified merely as a novel coronavirus. Once they isolated and identified it, it was provisionally named 2019-nCoV in January 2020, then SARS-CoV2 by the ICTV (the official international virus naming body) and COVID-19 by the WHO on 11 February 2020.

None of it seems likely but it is a puzzle

Again, incorrect - I know you believe it to be the case but the first local media reports in Wuhan - so not even wider China - were 30 December. So even if they were picked up immediately, you weren't chatting about them pre-Christmas.

I could only think of one alternative which is that your friends are specifically epidemiologists and were used to monitoring the possibility of a new disease - anyone working in this field was fully aware that we were going to have a pandemic to deal with, just not what / where / when it would manifest - it's a known challenge, given the nature of the world's growing and congested population and the possibility of novel viruses gaining a foothold at a population level.

This! They were welding doors shut! On BBC between Xmas and New Year.