That illness a lot of us had November-January...

[LaCherriesJubilee]

Could it have been Covid-19?

I keep seeing lone posts about this but no thread.

I became ill with a cough/chest infection thing in early December which wrecked my health all month. I remember feeling miserable over Christmas/New Year. I kept waking up coughing. I found it hard to catch my my breath just walking upstairs. It took over two months for the cough to go away. Interestingly neither of my DC caught it/were affected apart from the older saying she felt a bit "blah" for a few days.

So is it a possibility it's been here longer than we think and many of us have already had it and recovered without realizing? Or the other option which is that it was just one of the several viral things that go around every winter and not CV at all?

I don’t know but my uncle thinks the same as you. He was very ill in January with what he thought was flu and a chest infection. Now he’s heard the symptoms of coronavirus he wonders if that’s what he had? He works in a university with international students.

I had it and no I do no t think that it was CV at all. Surely it would have massively spread unchecked in those months following and someone before now would have thought hangon why are ten x more old or vulnerable people dying this year ?

No I don't buy it at all

Wishful thinking.

And I had the same thing! But I don’t believe it was covid-19.

My mum had it badly and I had it mildly. Mum was in between xmas and new year. Her chest ached, coughing constantly and she hardly moved for a week (and she is very active). I had a mild headache for 1 evening but was constantly coughing. The cough kept me awake at night but other than that I felt fine. This was just after New year.

I was wondering about this as well, as two friends had the same, but we'd have had reports of people dying from a novel virus. I mean the whole thing about it is none of us has immunity yet!

I had flu like virus in a early Jan. It started with a temperature and my body felt like a dead weight. I was in bed for three days.

I have had proper flu before so I know what flu feels like, and this did feel like it but it's symptoms were certainly not as strong. Neither DP or DC caught it but they are vaccinated for flu.

Who knows what it was I guess I'll just have to wait and see if I do get Covid-19.

I had it during November and December and thought the same recently..sudden onset high temp and dry cough and felt like I'd had a good kicking , took weeks to recover...wouldnt be surprised if it was .

I've seen a few threads about this

Thought the same.

Hospitalised with flu for 3 days in December. Genuinely thought I was going to die, it felt that bad.

Makes me wonder now

Me and dh had a cough and felt off in December, but I thought we'd have got it worse if it was, although we both felt bloody awful for about 2 weeks.
Neither of us ever get a cough, even after a cold, and this was as described, a dry cough, not chesty and productive.

No.

I had the same flu in early december that everyone seems to be talking about. I havent had flu for 20yrs so it was a bit of a shock being so ill but it was definitely flu not covid-19. Please can people stop trying to think it was. Look at italy, hundreds of people dying everyday due to this disease, look at china and the number of people on respirators. Do you not think that would have happened here if we had already had it? Or do we have some magical british immune system that makes it all ok? Think rationally please

I had that, don’t think it was CV though. I then had another thing, a couple of weeks ago, which fit CV description pretty well but just as easily could be the flu. I guess I won’t know unless I wind up in hospital with it.

A colleague of mine had this thing in January as did I

She developed pneumonia. She is 23.

That's unusual from seasonal flu.

I've been wondering about this too. I (and others I know/know of) have had drawn-out, very debilitating viruses this winter which floored us and were very difficult to recover from. I still have the cough weeks later and get random aches and pains. For a brief period during the worst of it I had breathing difficulties, particularly at night, and while resting. Felt very fatigued and couldnt stop sleeping for a couple of weeks.

I doubt it's outside the realms of possibility that COVID-19 sneaked in here and, since it wasn't being looked for, passed through a lot of people without being identified as such. Plenty of elderly and other vulnerable people will have died over winter from 'flu complications' - how do we know for sure some or many of them weren't in fact seen off by COVID-19 before the big publicity drive started here earlier this month? It won't have been observed as such because various strains of flu are expected during winter months and aren't necessarily distinguished between in post-mortems or even in ICUs.

As a PP said, maybe this isn't the case and we'll find out if we get something very different and more serious in the coming weeks or months. But I should add that I'm also convinced I started getting over it and then went down with it again in January, whatever it was!

But Peninsula theres usually a steady rate of people dying from flu complications.
They would have noticed a massive uptick in that if this new virus was circulating.

Or do we have some magical british immune system that makes it all ok? Think rationally please

You'll no doubt argue that this isn't a rational thought, but nevertheless, I'll put it out there anyway:

When millions and millions of people are told by global media that the virus is in their midst and could very possibly kill them, many of those people - particularly the most vulnerable - will become overwhelmed by anxiety. Science tells us that panic and stress can, when intense and not receptive to reassurances, overwhelm people to such an extent that their immune systems become weakened and/or they die of fright.

Most of the media - informed by governements - are not offering us much reassurance. Belief is a very powerful force.

Why would it only just have started spreading now?

There’s a long thread on this.

@7Days it wasn't necessarily any more prolific than other strains of flu. Now we've been drip fed the very persuasive and powerful idea of contagion - steadily, in one form or another, for a few months, with a mounting sense of its imminent arrival - it's spreading more intensely because people are both expecting it and terrified of it.

Perhaps...

We were all ill around the same time. We all had a high temperature on and off and a cough. I was the worst with it (I'm asthmatic) and had shortness of breath, exhaustion and went through a blue inhaler quickly , I still dont feel great. My husband was almost as ill as me , which was the biggest surprise as he's only had one cold in the years we've been together.

The kids were a little unwell , the two year old needed Calpol for a few days and was waking with a weird cough , he was also off of his food.

I had it and felt rubbish all over Christmas. I don't think it was the same.

No, it was a nasty bug and a few older people I know were quite ill with it.
However, the hospitals were not full of a higher than normal percentage of people with bilateral pneumonia and it didn’t cause a surge in deaths. So not covid19.

Science tells us that panic and stress can, when intense and not receptive to reassurances, overwhelm people to such an extent that their immune systems become weakened and/or they die of fright.

It doesn't.

There’s a long thread on this.

I didn't see it, could you link it?

And yes, there is definitely an element of wishful thinking - in my case anyway. It would be nice to think many of us had unknowingly already had it and recovered, though even if it were true we should still take hygiene/social measures for others. But then it would not be following the same trajectory as China, Italy, etc...

@Supersimkin2

Yes it does. Anxiety and stress weaken your immune system.