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?

If that was Coronavirus then me and my son would have been spreading it all over that hospital and his school but that doesn't seem to have happened (I didn't read about a spike in deaths in Paediatric ward

But children on the whole don’t get it as bad as adults so whilst some children might have picked up what you had if it was Covid19 then there really wouldn’t have been a spike in deaths

This is a long but really interesting article about testing and transmission in the States, referencing the Seattle flu study you talked about FatAlbert

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-many-americans-are-sick-lost-february/608521/

I had a fever, aches and cough badly at February half term. The NP asked if I'd been to China or skiing recently, which I hadn't so wasn't tested.

I then had virtually exactly the same symptoms just over two weeks ago. Fever, aches, cough, no sense of smell (tbh I get that with lots of viruses), sweats, bedridden. This time I didn't get tested because I wasn't hospitalised and guidance had changed.

I don't know what I've had, but it's been nasty. I hope one was C19 as then DC and DH have escaped with mild symptoms.
I'm still building my strength back up. And still coughing.

@GirlCalledJames not if they were elderly and had a myriad of health conditions first, likely they’d be admitted to a geriatric ward and made as comfortable as possible before the inevitable. @Newgirls is correct we only know because we’re testing these patients now.

The very elderly chap who was one of he first deaths in the UK at the very beginning of March had been in hospital 6 weeks after suffering from a stroke. His granddaughter was interviewed on BBC 5 Live, he was tested only 48 hrs before he passed away and was receiving end of life care prior to that, had he not been tested his cause of death would have been the stroke. He wasn’t been treated for phunomina thr Grandaughter said.

There was a really nasty cold/flu like virus that hit my kids school in November, both my kids caught it (& DH too). Started off with a sore throat then developed into a continuous hacking cough, high fever, aches, loss of appetite, sleeping loads, one had D&V too. It very quickly spread round the school, at one point almost half the children were off sick at the same time. Same happened in several other schools in our local area. We were told not to send the kids in if they had any cold/cough type symptoms whatsoever. Never known so many absences at once. It does make you wonder if C19 was circulating much earlier than anyone realised.

The Atlantic article linked above says "On or about January 15, someone infected by the coronavirus arrived in the Seattle area, Bedford’s research would later show. The virus began to silently spread in the region. It would not be detected for another six weeks."

I think it is pretty implausible that the virus spread from Wuhan to Seattle in early/mid January yet didn't reach the London area or other regions of the UK until much later?

The virus was also in the UK in mid January from someone who had been skiing in Austria earlier in January.

Are you aware how much information is collected on NHS data and other healthcare providers worldwide that is continuously analysed

We would have seen far more people in icu and far more people dying with the same symptoms

It first started in China in November 2019 - not in 2020 that’s why it’s COVID-19 not COVID-2020

Are you aware how much information is collected on NHS data and other healthcare providers worldwide that is continuously analysed

Their powers of analysis are up for debate. My GP does not have access to my son's hospital notes for a broken bone, for example - he didn't even know it had happened.

Are you honestly suggesting that the NHS has a joined up view of the British public's health?

I'm pretty sure (retrospectively) that ain't had it in Feb - all the symptoms and extreme fatigue that did not go away until last week. At the time I thought it would be paranoia to think I had it as had no contact with anyone in China or Italy. Now we know it was here earlier I think that's what happened. DS is at a London University with lots of overseas students, especially Chineses, and said yesterday he thinks he might have had it in Feb / mild but same symptoms and again assumed could not be it. So zI could have picked it up from him when I saw him beginning of Feb as my symptoms appeared around 17rh.

It is highly possible it was around before but highly possible that many people also had another horrible virus as there are lots of those around. Every year people die of pneumonia and flu. My worry is people will think they are safe as they had a terrible flu in January but actually it was just that.

I had the same type of symptoms in December. Viral cough that lasted 3 weeks, temperature and really painful back and chest. No typical cold symptoms. I was convinced I had pneumonia but the drs said it was viral. I've heard so many different things about this virus being around since November last year. im still not taking any risks and I'm complying with the lock down but I hope I have had it.

I also had extreme fatigue and symptoms that kept coming in waves and didn't follow the normal pattern of recovery from flu. I asked the pharmacist whether it was normal for flu symptoms to be going on for so long and he said 'not really no'.

I really don't know. The more I read about it, if it did start in Wuhan in mid November as there are some reports of, I don't think it is plausible it only reached our shores and started community transmission in late February. Wuhan isn't some backwater village, it is a well connected massive city with direct flights to most big capitals.

If anything, it has made me more cautious of sticking to the rules. The fear of getting something that could be worse is strong. I have never been so ill and it really knocked my confidence that I had a strong immune system and could shrug most illnesses off. I would like to have a test to know for sure, because at the moment I feel like it is hanging over me.

I am not talking about GP’s being able to access notes - different trusts use different systems and this might have been down to human error the systems are certainly not perfect but the notes added on systems are extensive

If many more people had COVID-19 in February, January or even December there would have been far more admissions to hospital like there have been in the last few weeks. Data would have shown this even if somehow this was not noticed that patients were being admitted with the same or very similar symptoms by doctors/nurses/management/admin staff in hospitals (and it absolutely would have been as it was in China). But of course it would have been noticed. This would have happened in other countries to.

Unless all those who think they might of had it sometime ago completely self isolated from the time they caught the virus and that is before they had symptoms it would have been passed on. We all know how easily this virus is being passed on by the sheer growing numbers in recent weeks and though a minority of people are needing medical attention the numbers are far far higher than what any healthcare provider is used to dealing with

There are always lots of viruses around especially in winter

China had experienced SARS and MERS before, they were better prepared for identifying an outbreak imo.

The Atlantic article explains how a lack of joined up testing in the US meant the virus was spreading under the radar for a good few weeks before it was detected. I don't believe the UK performed any better than the US.

If many more people had COVID-19 in February, January or even December there would have been far more admissions to hospital like there have been in the last few weeks

Where's the data?

WHO

That’s what they do monitor the worlds health

Maybe you are not aware of the extensive details added everytime you see a gp go to hospital the medication that is prescribed the details of your symptoms this is al collated

And do you really think an increase of people going to their gp, attending a&e, paramedics being called out and those admitted to hospital and the increase in icu would have bypassed so many professionals

Or that they would not have raised this with management and other medics (in the endless meetings we have in the NHS)

And do you really think an increase of people going to their gp, attending a&e, paramedics being called out and those admitted to hospital and the increase in icu would have bypassed so many professionals

An absence of data is not the same as data.

Don't we hear pretty regularly that the NHS is at breaking point and that they've had record-breaking highs of xyz?

Do you work for the NHS?

Actually endless meetings is not really a reliable indicator of transparent reporting, quite the opposite.

I am convinced it was here from about December!
I'll never know but I had what I though was an awful chest infection/cold it didn't feel like normal. My chest was on fire and I just wasn't myself.
This was January

Yes I do

What are you suggesting that many professional didn’t notice or that there is some big cover up and they are all in it together along with their international colleagues and governments

Of course there is no cover up. I don't think our government has been as well prepared as it should have been for this outbreak, many services aren't joined up and the lack of testing is a big problem. I don't think that is a particularly controversial view.

Dd has similar in January

Of course I'm not suggesting a coverup.

What here defenders says and no, this is not a controversial view.

It's like there's a new post-corona world view.

In December, we all agreed that the NHS had no joined up reporting. Now, it's tin-hat stuff.

The last time I was out of Norfolk was end of November. I was in London for 3 days. We went to the Tutankhamun Exhibition, The British Museum, and were wandering around Central London seeing the lights.

I had an appointment with the Doctor in Feb because of feeling shit. Mild chest pains, dodgy guts, going hot and cold, feeling sick and dizzy. Metallic mouth.

However no cough.

I am not convinced I didn’t pick something up in London. My cousin who I was with had flu afterwards.

Who knows.