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?

[DartmoorChef]

As for the lack od deaths, i suspect the first ones were going unnoticed/undiagnosed as cv and simply being put down to underlying health.

[waterjungle]

Me - fit, healthy 41 year old. Hospitalised for a week with meningitis which they then decided was pneumonia. Out for 2 weeks and still not recovering, now have a chest infection.
Went to see my osteopath (about the same age) who had exactly the same (down to the meningitis / pneumonia ) 6 weeks previously. His friend had had the same 4 weeks before him (he hadn't caught it of him as they had only been in phone contact).
They aren;t the only people similar to me who seem to have got pneumonia this year. I have heard of a few people through friends and family who I don'y have physical contact with who it has happened to.

[GirlCalledJames]

If you take the test, you might have caught it asymptomatically in between a different virus and taking the test, so you will never really know.
I also had the virus people are talking about and I felt really weird and ill for a couple of days but nobody caught it from me, not even two family members who are now officially confirmed to have Covid19, so I don’t see any reason to think it wasn’t something else.
Don’t forget there are loads of coronaviruses, the common cold is one.

[jakeyboy1]

Someone in our extended family died on New Year's Eve of a flu/chest infection. I have my suspicions it has been around a while.

[Chocolatekitty]

I had exactly the same thing- if I had it now, I'd be sure it's COVID-19. The thought has crossed my mind. The only thing that convinces me that it wasn't is that no-one I work with got it, and I went back before I should have becuase of the 'off-work-guilt'. I work with someone who's immunocompromised, and though I obviously kept my distance from her and wiped down everything, if it was as contagious as they say corona is, she'd surely have caught it. Our desks are barely six feet from each other!

[Isla727]

There was a nasty virus with a very severe cough and mild fever going around after Christmas. However it (well the one that I had) definitely was not Coronavirus because my brother had it at the time and now has Covid!

[AllTheWhoresOfMalta]

I’m sure I had it mid February. All the symptoms and it’s floored me for the past month. Developed a chest and ear infection, been on several courses of antibiotics.

[nonsensicalmess]

But I had similar the winter before - no cold symptoms (as flu often doesn't have them), major symptoms were fever and chest related. It took months for my chest to feel right and I've been on a stronger inhaler ever since (I'm asthmatic). Covid-19? Nope - just a nasty flu-type virus, the like of which circulates every winter.

[nonsensicalmess]

Oh and I was also told (Jan 2019) that there was a particularly nasty virus going around!

[HuckfromScandal]

Of you all had covid 19 the docs have done a fucking marvellous job of covering up all the deaths that would have been happening in dec-Jan-feb.

Yes, there was a nasty bug going about, I had it. But ffs, surely to god, it didn’t just start indiscriminately killing people in the last 3 weeks??? Or there’s a massive conspiracy covering up a whole lot of deaths.....

[TheLadyAnneNeville]

Many people are having mild to severe (but no hospital treatment given) symptoms NOW. Perhaps that’s what we all had. The CMO tells us MOST people will have a mild disease process and recover. Also, I’d HAD my flu jab; I buy it each year as a precaution.

Don’t forget, Dec/jan/Feb is the worst time for deaths from respiratory disease/flu/pneumonia in the Uk. Perhaps we, who think we’ve had it were just in the “warm up phase”?

I don’t know really but what I DO know is that I had an horrendous time of it and am still breathless to the point of not being fully able to function as I did, pre-illness in Dec.19.

[DippyAvocado]

there was definitely something going round with a very persistent cough this winter. It seems very unlikely to me that it was COVID-19, though.

I agree. DD(10) had something similar New Year. It wiped her out for about 4 weeks. None of the rest of us (family of 4, plus socialised with numerous friends and family over Christmas) had anything similar so it seems unlikely it was something highly contagious like Covid-19.

[Davros]

Isn't that why it's called Covid 19? Because it started in 2019?

[TheLadyAnneNeville]

It would be interesting to have a test for antibodies but of course, that cannot happen.

[GreyHare]

I'm almost convinced that I caught off my Mum who went down with it on Christmas Day, she had the metallic taste in her mouth and got better then got ill again, she was so so ill, that she only really felt better mid feb, I went down with it New Years Eve was ill for a week aches and pains, sweaty chills so tired but couldn't sleep for coughing, got better then got worse and completely lost my sense of smell for 2 weeks and then it took ages to return, I have had colds and flu and have lost sense of smell whilst bunged up, but this was different, I wasn't bunged up at all but had no smell or taste and when in returned it took ages to return completely and for ages I felt like I was wading through treacle as everything was such an effort.

I do think it was here long before anyone realised.

[slalomsuki]

I've often thought that I had it too over new year. Fever, dry cough and sore head that floored me for about 4 days and cough was around for a couple of weeks.

Went to the doctor for an unrelated matter and coughed and commented about the cough to be told that there was an odd virus going around and I would get over it. Never tested for anything and wasn't flu as different symptoms and I had had a flu jab in October.

No one else got it in my family despite close contact but 2 of the kids had a funny virus after February half term but they were over that after a few days. Hot and sore throats for both of them but no cough.

[Pentium85]

I think I had it mid-December.
Hospitalised with 'flu'
In the following weeks the 4 people who live in my house then became ill, with everyone have a severe cough they just couldn't shift.

[pigdogridesagain]

I'm convinced this is what my brother had over Xmas. Gasping for breath, temperature, exhaustion, constant coughing. He was given three rounds of antibiotics and steroids and nothing touched it. Took him nearly a month to feel better again.

[PhysaliaPhysalis]

This virologist explains why although it seems like people had Covid-19 earlier in the year, they didn't.

[Ponoka7]

We've been wondering the same, because we were all wiped out by something. I've had pneumonia twice, once bad enough to be on oxygen for two weeks and this was different but the exhaustion was similar.

I've had a strain of the original corona virus and it put me in hospital. Talking to my consultants, we don't become immune to it.

So having it doesn't guarantee immunity, unfortunately. There's more than one strain of this new one and they can vary in degrees of aggressiveness. I was reading today on the BBC website. A person in Japan is the first person to be diagnosed with two strais at once.

[BeenHereForAges]

We had something awful as a family at the end of November. We were so Ill. Couldn't stand up at one point. Dreadful coughs, soaking wet with temp/shivers. DP ended up in hospital with breathing difficulties where they tested for flu but came back negative. We all ended up with bronchitis but not pneumonia. Really weird. Having said that our coughs were "productive" and think I read covid-19 isnt. Who knows!

[Shouldershrugger]

I am with you op. My mangers and I had horrendous coughs and fevers. The both of us normally just soldier through. But we were bed ridden and we never felt so ill in our entire lives. This was a week before xmas for me and during Xmas for her.

[Quartz2208]

Unless we started off like Germany - whose death rate is low because it hit younger fitter people first who survive and those that do

It was known to be in China in November 2019 anything from December onwards could be

[SapphireSalute]

I think my DD had this. Just after christmas. Remember thinking at the time it was odd,interestingly,none of us got it from her

The cough was quite unique and i remember worrying over her, even though she's 25!! 6 other people in the house and nobody caught it

[McT123]

6 years ago I had a cough and a high temperature. I'm convinced that I had coronavirus and the Reptilians have been covering it up.