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?

[JellyBabiesSaveLives]

On today’s figures, 88% of those tested were negative. And we’re only testing the really obvious-looking cases. There are a lot of nasty bugs that give you a sore throat and make you feel really bad.

[Labracadabra]

In April 2005 I was hospitalised with terrible breathing difficulties and a raging fever. In November 1993 just before my mock GCSEs I had a terrible fever and was almost comatose on the sofa unaware of anything going on around me. And I've never even eaten a bat.

All your stories of being ill with a cough, fever etc. are very interesting but prove nothing except that lots of viruses result in the same signs and symptoms. It just doesn't make epidemiological or pathological sense that a virus would circulate and not result in large numbers of critically ill and dying patients, and then a few months later start killing people in great numbers (even after people started isolating and extreme hand washing which they weren't doing in Nov/Dec/1982 or whenever everyone thinks they had it)

[user1493413286]

There was something horrible going round around Christmas; if it was the same virus I would have thought there would have been deaths like we’re seeing now but I don’t understand enough about how virus’s mutate to know how that would work

[RedToothBrush]

There was a report yesterday which was based on research from I think it was Oxford Uni which said they suspected that covid-19 had been circulating in the UK and Italy well before January 23rd (when Wuhan locked down) but as yet until they start doing some research using antibodies to see how far it spread they don't know for sure.

But that doesn't mean it was the thing going around in December which was bloody awful.

[Winederlust]

There is an Oxford uni study just published saying it’s been out a while and prob half the uk population have had it.
They were talking about this on radio 2 today. The suggestion was that if it was Corona virus there would have also been a spike in deaths, but there wasn't.

[Thymelord]

If you say so.

[gingersausage]

Don’t be daft @HuckfromScandal, there wouldn’t need to be any sort of cover-up or conspiracy 🙄. People die, more so in winter. If an elderly person dies of “old age” the death will be signed out appropriately. If the same person happened to also have “flu” or “pneumonia”, in general not much would be done to find the virus that caused those.

Winter > elderly people > flu or pneumonia deaths increase > normal situation. It’s no great mystery.

[moultmorethanthedog]

I am another who thinks they have had the virus too. My symptoms started on Christmas night loss of taste and smell followed by a cough, high fever, bunged up nose but no cold! I wish I could be tested as it lasted forever!!!

[RoyalAlfred]

When I was in hospital with Flu in November 2018 the consultant said there had been a spike in cases requiring hospital treatment in our region. He thought it might have something to do with the composition of the flu vaccine that year (I was a bit out of it so didn’t follow entirely). Maybe he was referring to this: www.independent.co.uk/news/health/flu-vaccine-deaths-nhs-ineffective-crisis-bad-weather-illness-2017-a8660496.html

The point being is lots of horrid viruses around in ‘flu season’ that we probably wouldn’t notice otherwise?

[TeacupDrama]

of all the ill people with symptoms indicating it might be covid or have had contact with covid so therefore have a much much higher risk of being covid+ than the public at large and so are being tested, 90% are coming back negative so these people are still ill and still coughing but they don't have covid they have some other virus or bacterial infection, every year we have several hundred deaths ( mainly in the elderly and those with underlying conditons) from seasonal flu
it is not until afterwards that we will know how many of these deaths were covid and how many were normal seasonal flu / pneumonia etc

most people today who have flu like symptoms and a cough do not have covid but seasonal flu that is why antibody test to see if immune is of some importance

[phpolly]

I have a friend in Italy who is one hundred percent convinced that covid-19 has been there since sometime in November. I imagine that epidemiologists are right now busy tracing it and trying to figure out exactly when, how, etc it started.

[RoyalAlfred]

I was ill for about 3 weeks before going into hospital, in hospital for 5 days and took about another 3 weeks to get back to ‘normal’.

[willdoitinaminute]

I think anyone with symptoms after the end of January, there is a strong possibility it was COVID. I developed a very mild cold (24hrs) but the cough that developed was horrendous, dry hacking from the bottom of my lungs. I struggled to breath for 24hrs and sleep was impossible unless I sat up. I passed it onto DH very rapidly. It was nothing like flu apart from sudden onset and the length of time it has taken to recover. Mild fever but not severe. I did have metallic taste and sinusitis but I didn’t really connect it to the cough as it was in the weeks after the cough had subsided.
I work in dentistry so very high risk. Had a number of patients who had been skiing in Jan/Feb.
Won’t know until they start testing for antibodies. Hopefully as
they have closed down dentistry we will be near the top of the list to test so we can get back to work seeing emergencies.

[MGMidget]

I think plenty of chinese were leaving China or other far eastern countries to come to the UK or other countries where they could before borders were closed in their country. It would be optimistic to think it wasn't circulating in London from Christmas time and certainly by mid-January. My DS has all the symptoms around mid-Feb and DH had the symptoms (far worse with breathing difficulties, felt he was drowning etc) in late Feb to early March. He is still coughing badly so still can't go out although unlikely to be contagious but noone will want to be near him! One of DS's classmates was in Hong Kong until last year and they had friends come stay with them to escape the far east as the virus escalated. I am sure that happened elsewhere too.

[GrumpiestOldWoman]

I had the exact same symptoms at Christmas, temperature, cough - lost about 1/2 stone. But it was Christmas 2017

I don't think it's been here since Christmas 2019, we just get nasty fluey things from time to time.

[Beanbag12]

My little boy and more than half his preschool were off at the same time just before Christmas with the worst bug I have ever experienced, high temperatures, the worst dry cough that hung on for 2 weeks. I kept him off preschool for a week and a half because it knocked him so bad I was concerned if he caught anything else he wouldn’t cope. Though no one else in the family caught it.

[Echobelly]

Given the peaks in other countries I think we'd have noticed if it were C19 sadly. I suspect it was just a bad flu, maybe a different kind of coronavirus.

[LynetteScavo]

If you think you had it at Christmas where are you? DS thinks he caught it in a pub in Middlesbrough the weekend before Christmas.

[OoohTheStatsDontLie]

There are over 200 different strains of the cold virus alone and many other flu type viruses, lots and lots of which include fatigue, coughs, fever etc. Normal flu often leads to complications such as pneumonia.

We can tell from the tests that have been completed for covid 19 that even now, a relatively small percentage of people that think they have got it, actually do have it.

You may think you've had it but statistics show you probably haven't. Maybe a test will be out soon that shows whether you've had it or not.

[FromEden]

And why, if it's been around for do long and so many people have had it, is there a Strain on the NHS now? Surely the nhs would have been crippled staff been sick and concern raised by the nhs sooner

Maybe it's taken this long for enough people to become infected to cause an increase in hospitalizations. We know that most people have mild or even no symptoms, so if it was spreading in small clusters it might take a while for it to be noticed because the vast majority dont have severe illness and if they even realised they were sick would have attributed it to a cold or other virus.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

If you are right, that would mean immunity doesn’t last long when you consider there are people, who had this around Christmas and have recently been ill again with covid like symptoms. Myself included.

I’m on “my lungs are on fire” threads btw. Before I had this thing, I also thought the same as you. But now, considering how many people have a large lap over of symptoms, it seems far more likely this current illness is covid 19 rather than the flu type bug many many of us had.

[OoohTheStatsDontLie]

Studies show it is contagious to the point the average person spreads it to 3 more. Covid19 doesn't spread in small clusters, think how many people the average person passes within walking distance of or touches the same thing as someone else, even in a day. It wouldnt have spread in small clusters and wouldnt have spread to just healthy people or young people

[TKAAHUARTG]

There is an awful cough going around that is not covid-19 though, so no I believe doctors over armchair/google/self-appointed experts.

[Bubblemonkey]

I work at the hospital. I had a look a few times at the transport system... from the elderly wards, I refuse to believe it was coincidental that there were multiple patients for the morgue around the same time.

[Porcupineinwaiting]

There were a lot of nasty fluey bugs around at Christmas. I know, I had one of them. They weren't COVID 18 though or our morgues would have been overflowing by mid Feb. I think wed have noticed that.

I do think it was spreading here for a few weeks before testing started.