Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Is there anyone who doesn’t think they had covid last winter

264 replies

Sosickofasshats · 29/10/2020 22:36

no trolling or trying to be clever, almost every single person I know thinks they could have had it last year. I was in hospital for a virus which caused breathing difficulties in December. I feel like I’m losing touch with relaity

OP posts:
Inkpaperstars · 30/10/2020 02:16

A negative antibody test doesn't confirm you haven't had it. Someone I know who works in a hospital said many of her colleagues had it and were tested, were positive for active infection. Later on when given antibody tests only about half of those who had earlier tested positive had antibodies.

I wish I had had an antibody test earlier just in case I did get a clear result, but I think it's unlikely to be any use to me six months on as apparently the antibodies don't last long, maybe I should though.

Marmite27 · 30/10/2020 02:23

I had a hideous cough. In February I’d had it 9 weeks, because it was mentioned in a meeting at work. The previous meeting 9 weeks earlier I had to leave the meeting due to uncontrollable coughing, they sent a firstaider after me as the person running the meeting thought I was having an asthma attack. I couldn’t get a breath in, and had tears streaming down my face.

1forAll74 · 30/10/2020 02:32

Some people probably had a very bad dose of influenza, which is quite serious sometimes. Where my late Mum use to live in sheltered housing flats many years ago, I went to pick her up for a stay at my house over Christmas, and she said, you wont believe this, but five of her female neighbours along the corridor had been rushed to the hospital in the two weeks before Christmas, and all of them had died with influenza just before Christmas. They had all had the flu jab, including my Mum. This was years ago, as my Mum died 15 years ago.

WelcomeToGreenvale · 30/10/2020 02:37

Had the worst chest infection of my life in February, it really affected me in a way that my annual chest infections usually don't. I spent a few days feeling like there was a weight on my chest and it was harder than normal to breathe. I'm asthmatic and used to the effects of standard colds, coughs and respiratory infections, but this one was bad. No I don't seriously think it was covid but it's weird that it happened and I kind of hope it was, because with my lungs if that's the worst it can do to me, then great.

Bowerbird5 · 30/10/2020 02:41

I was fairly ok last Winter. Asthma as usual but that was it. However my best friend was ill. I went to see her and I have never seen her look so I’ll. I was really worried about her. She had a temperature, cough, very wheezy and so grey looking. She was ill for a few weeks and took a long time at least six to eight weeks to feel better. I suspected it was Covid except that no one else got it either in the family and myself and I drove her to different places. Both her husband I have erratic immune systems.

IhateBoswell · 30/10/2020 02:59

I had a positive result on the 12th of this month, no cough though. I wouldn’t be surprised if lots of people have had it and put it down to a mild bug.

Toddlerteaplease · 30/10/2020 03:44

I had two colleagues who were convicted they had it. One actually had but the other one hadn't.

Pixxie7 · 30/10/2020 04:19

I haven’t had it.

malificent7 · 30/10/2020 06:05

Last November a bad coughing hug swept round dds school. I had it...felt awful...cough, temperature.
Dd had it...delerium..cough..i rekon it was covid.

malificent7 · 30/10/2020 06:06

Bug*

KatherineJaneway · 30/10/2020 06:07

No, I've not had it. I get colds but I can't remember ever having flu.

ChasingRainbows19 · 30/10/2020 06:13

I work in a hospital. There was a lot of different nasty viruses around last winter. Flu season was pretty full on. Hospitals can test and swab for lots of different viruses. Lots of them are actual Coronavirus types or ones with similar symptoms. I doubt most people had Covid that think they did last year to be honest.

No one knows really when it got here, I read about a case that’s been traced back to January ( with antibodies)

TeddyIsaHe · 30/10/2020 06:18

Well it was definitely here in December, a man who died and hadn’t traveled anywhere was found to have covid in his lungs in January. He first displayed symptoms 3 days before China reported their first outbreak.

I’ve not been properly ill, bar a cold, for a couple of years, so I doubt I’ve had it.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 30/10/2020 06:32

I know a lot people who look back on their illnesses last winter/spring with curiosity. For us

  • DH had a cold. It got to the point he was signed of work by the doctor. He was coughing continuously, struggling to breathe and exhausted.
  • Then, DD got ill. And didn't stop coughing all winter. She developed this cough a few days before we went on holiday... To the Italian Alps. Not Lombardy, but very close. Family joke is she took Covid to Italy.

It could have been Covid. It could have been something else. More likely something else.

Another slightly strange thing.. or just lucky. All of DHs collegeaues had the strange cold in December to February. As an essential service, they didn't stop working in March, and continued in the office with minor changes. Not one suspected case.

Oblomov20 · 30/10/2020 06:43

I never had it back then. I don't think I've had it now. I haven't been ill at all. If I have had it, I've been totally asymptomatic, and if that is the case then covid clearly isn't that bad!

Oblomov20 · 30/10/2020 06:45

I think I've taken 2 days sick in the last 15 years. I think I had a cold 6 or 7 years ago?

hellisotherpeopleandhorlicks · 30/10/2020 06:47

I don't think I've had it! I was heavily pregnant and barely left the house due to SPD and didn't even get a cold last year.

I think most people hope they've had it as it makes them feel better about going out and about a bit/takes the fear away

Mistigri · 30/10/2020 06:48

I definitely haven't had it & nor has DH.

My DS definitely had it (though not last winter).

My DD might have had it in March - she was in Paris and had a bad cold/cough. No way of knowing.

FippertyGibbett · 30/10/2020 06:59

No.

IRememberSoIDo · 30/10/2020 07:00

I don't think I've had it. My dad, my younger and I all had a dose all over Christmas and my poor old dad spent most of January and February in hospital with pneumonia. I have a "friend" who is obsessed and keeps saying "you definitely had it, no doubts!" I actually asked my GP recently when I had to get a check up and prescription renewal and he said there was a nasty virus last year but he did not believe it was Covid. This one keeps saying you wait til you have your antibody test like it's some sort of badge of honour/threat. I have not booked nor am I currently planning on having an antibody test 🤔

FippertyGibbett · 30/10/2020 07:01

The people I know who have had a positive test have had such a mild illness that they wouldn’t have known, they would have just put it down to a bug.
They have had far worse heavy colds.

Ihg27 · 30/10/2020 07:02

@Allywill

I am pretty sure I have not had it. (Unless I was asymptomatic of course in which case how would I know) Last time I was ill was feb 2019 with tonsillitis before that Oct 17 with a terrible cold/sore throat/ cough/ear infection. On the other hand my sister had a terrible chest infection in early feb 20 after returning from Malaysia. She did have a covid test but it was very haphazzard - the doctor didn’t take it seriously, she says the swab was basically just in the very entrance of her nostril and may have been outside of the effective time zone anyway as per what we know now. Workday not be surprised at all if she had got it then
Exactly. No one can be sure they haven’t had it as most cases have no symptoms.

I have a feeling an antibody test would surprise a lot if you who “definitely haven’t had it”

There seems to be a though that if you haven’t been il you can’t possibly have had it. How anyone can look at the results of various worldwide antibody tests or read about the huge numbers of people being tested as a result of track and trace who test positive who would have otherwise had no clue is beyond me.

Look how many people are testing positive now. That’s because of greatly increased testing of people not because far more people have it than pre lockdown.

It was running rife to the extent that far more people were ill than are now and we were all working together, socialising etc.

I have no idea how anyone can be naive enough to confidently state they definitely haven’t had it. Unless no one in their household left hone and they had no visitors from September to March

GlitteryUnicornSparkles · 30/10/2020 07:14

One of my colleagues got pheumonia in Dec last year, a few of us recon now that theres a good chance it was covid that caused her to become so unwell.

Tyranttoddler · 30/10/2020 07:18

We had to close our school for a deep clean in December because so many were off with a high temp and respiratory illness. I feel like a mad person even suggesting this could be covid. It's probably just a coincidence!

Thirtyrock39 · 30/10/2020 07:18

Me and all my nhs colleagues who all were tested for antibodies late spring and were negative despite a couple of them being very poorly early March and convinced they had it .
My understanding is it's unlikely unless you had been abroad to a high risk area or in the spring were in London to have had it in the winter months