To think I’ve had COVID 19, and it’s been here a while?

[VivienScott]

After Xmas I came down with what I thought was a terrible cold. Dry persistent cough, terrible fever, worse than I’ve ever had to the point I was delirious, difficulty breathing, though not pneumonia. Saw out of hours and they check oxygen levels, chest etc, said I was ok to be home, but I was not first case they’d seen like this and there was “something really awful going round this year”. Consequently had to see GP who said he’d had to hospitalise a lot more people than normal for breathing difficulties.
It all sounds exactly like coronavirus, it really felt like something dreadful to the extent I deliberately kept myself from others more than I would with a cold. I honestly believe it was, but it’s way before it was supposed to be in Europe let alone here in UK. What do you think, AIBU to think it’s been here longer than we’re aware?

You are deflecting now wombat because nobody claimed to be patient zero nor that they had it in August 1996. Your exaggeration to prove your point just makes your arguments less credible, which is why no one is listening to you any more, even if your points were initially valid.

None of the science can be 100% correct, because there has been so little testing. The UK stats are pretty meaningless, even deaths are now less reliable since they changed the measurement basis. Germany is probably the only country's statistics I would perhaps hold any faith in.

Corona was first confirmed in Germany on 27 Jan, so entirely possible they had cases unconfirmed before then.

I suspect the same. The virus was in China Oct/Nov but it wasn't until New Year that we really started to see news reports about it. Think of the amount of people that would have travelled to/from the area over that period of time.....

Having blind faith in statistics that are relatively unproven is pretty illogical though.

I think this thread is quite a good example of when people feel like they're not being told the whole truth, human nature compels us to try and fill in the gaps ourselves.

Add to that the fact that experts are yet to reach a consensus in their scientific modelling of the virus and its natural to want to think we've already had it then we don't need to be as scared about getting it in the future.

One of my kids was very ill this winter (not with corona) and the gp mentioned in passing how the viruses going around had been particularly awful this year. I think that there's been a higher than average number of pneumonia deaths across Europe this winter too. Therefore I don't think it's completely unfeasible that a milder strain of the virus has been doing the rounds for longer than we think but it has mutated into something worse - hence the spike in death rates. We saw a similar thing with the Spanish flu although over a longer time frame.

Realistically however I don't think we'll know the full truth about this outbreak for at least a few more years.

Realistically however I don't think we'll know the full truth about this outbreak for at least a few more years.

This.

@OutComeTheWolves i agree there may have been a milder strain. I was very ill at Christmas my asthma was awful , chest infection barely could breathe , took time off work which is unheard of for me. A colleague had been on holiday andthey came back poorly and i caught it and we both took ages to shift it .I had two lots antibiotics and two lots steroids. I would like to think i have had it , my boss is utterly convinced looking back we did .I work in community care so i thinking if i did have a milder version then at least everything crossed.

Two things that do surprise me though are the length of time it apparently took to travel. The sheer number of people travelling in and out of China on a daily basis combined with quite a long incubation period. It seems impossible to me that it took a couple of months to reach the U.K. I would've though a couple of weeks would be more likely.

And the lack of testing in some countries. Surely however expensive tests are, they're cheaper than complete economic collapse brought on by shutting down most of Europe.

I'm surprised we are meant to believe that the government managed to catch the first person in UK to ever get COVID-19. If it was in Wuhan since 2019 then how can we possibly believe it didn't leave China sooner? I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I am one for common sense. That it only came to the UK or Italy or Iran AFTER Wuhan went into lockdown. If just doesn't make sense.

The first confirmed cases outside mainland china were on January 20th in Japan

It was in the UK before that. Family contracted it skiing in Austria on I think 6th January.

Those people that think they may have had it did your family / friends/ colleagues get it too

Yes

Also if what I had was the milder strain then I don’t think I would survive full blown Corona

If it was coronavirus, how come there were no deaths reported until March? Surely if people were getting ill in January from coronavirus, then there would have been deaths from it since January?

Probably because no one had any idea that Corona was a possibility.

People did die but as it affected those with underlying health conditions then it was probably attributed to that.

The death rate I am sure I saw somewhere that it did rise from January 2019 compared to January 2020

I want to know if what my household had in early February was Corona purely because we still haven’t fully recovered from it (respiratory wise) and if it wasn’t, then I dread to think of the consequences of getting something more severe than what we had, now.

My family is very fit/healthy as well and it was very unusual for us all to be so affected by illness anyway.

We live in a commuter town where lots of people commute into London, as does my DD who was the only one mildly affected, so it’s reasonable to think it may have travelled from there.

Really hope they get a move on and make antibody tests available.

My DSIL thinks she had it. Sounds exactly like all the other accounts of it. She was in Italy Skiing at New Year, and the fatigue just hit her one day, crawled into bed and didn't come out of it for days. She said she's never been that ill before. I've heard a few people saying they've had the worst flu ever since last October, one friend is still using an inhaler from the 'flu' (it wasn't flu) in November.

Just to reiterate I’m not saying I had it. I think because of the timing that it’s very unlikely. But the symptoms were the same, I picked whatever it was up travelling and the NHS kept me in isolation for 8 days because they couldn’t confirm what it was.

I’d be interested to know, but I’m assuming I haven’t had it, and self isolating with my family. We’ve been lucky enough to get food delivery slots and are WFH so haven’t had to go out apart from a daily walk / run from our front door.

Mothertruck - because so few people had it then, they had enough medical provisions to prevent deaths - possibly

I think the strangest assertion on this thread is that no one outside of China had this virus until early January. Impossible.

Presumably when the antibody test is available you will test yourselves. I am open-minded and am prepared to contemplate the idea it has been around for longer. Not sure how the tests will be distributed?

@CoronaIsShit, that’s how I feel. I want to know because an otherwise fit healthy woman (me 😊) had something so awful, I needed steroids, inhalers and antibiotics. I buy a flu jab every years. I never usually get so much as a cold and have always been a bit smug about that. And now, months later, I still cannot breath properly and GP said she’d leave inhalers as a repeat medication for me.

I do NOT want to think there’s something out there even worse than what I’ve had and am still recovering from.

I saw an article on iflscience suggesting 60% of the UK have probably already had it, obviously can't be proven yet, though.
My auntie (late 50s with COPD) came down with bizarre symptoms in January, she had a raging fever for 4 days that couldn't be brought down, was delirious, coughing and was rushed to hospital because she couldn't breathe. Her oxygen levels were significantly down and she was put on oxygen with the promise of being put on a ventilator if her levels didn't come up within 24 hours on oxygen. Luckily they did just enough, she was kept on it for a few days, started to recover and came home. It was bizarre, though. Since then, every single one of us in the family at some point have had some difficulty breathing properly. About 6 weeks ago I developed dyspnea out of the blue, still hasn't resolved itself, I've just learnt to deal with it (my oxygen levels are fine and there was not much the doc could do as my bloods were fine). I do wonder.

Damning article on the UK government's testing strategy in the FT.

www.ft.com/content/fa747fbd-c19e-4bac-9c37-d46afc9393fb

The article says a senior Tory source says the govt believed a more extensive testing strategy like Korea had taken would be seen as "too intrusive".

You have not had it, maybe one of you, at a push, but not as far back as Christmas. For the first month, every person testing positive could trace where they got it, if it had been going around undetected you would have lots of apparently "random" cases. The real positives and deaths were all traceable, which does the opposite of suggest there are a lot of unaccounted for carriers out there.

Were none of you with your older family members at Christmas? It's almost miraculous that they got through unscathed... there are other viruses going around too, but they are ones your older family members can handle better.

It's wishful thinking, maybe it suggests you have a good strong immune system and you can find comfort in that. However, if one person is reassured by this thread that they can carry on life as normal, then it becomes dangerous.

But every person testing positive at the very start was only tested because they were seriously ill, presumably to the point where they sought medical help. We are told that many people are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. So how many people experienced that at the same time? Makes no sense that the only people who brought the virus into the country were also, coincidentally, ill enough to receive a test.

I don't think this thread would reassure anyone. The only people who can have a small measure of comfort are the ones that have had a positive test and come out the other side. And based on the stats there are only a tiny number of them.

I got terribly ill at the end of December - all the symptoms of CV19 including not being able to breathe and incredibly painful lungs, which has never happened to me before. Completely put me on my arse.

I live alone and work for myself and am quite a bit of a hermit, so didn't pass it on to anyone (that I'm aware of).