Is it really possible some people had cv earlier in the year?

[Butterbear86]

It seems unlikely as surely we’d have seen a massive rise in cases sooner?
However my dad - works in an area with a lot of people from China - had something so similar mid January. It started with a terrible head ache and then a fever, followed shortly by a cough. He coughed so much he couldn’t stand up and he was really ill for three weeks and quite unwell for another three - so six weeks in all. He also lost his appetite and lost a stone and a half. He’s never usually ill and has the flu jab every year. If he had that now we’d say it was covid-19 but I guess it probably wasn’t. My mother had it but like my dad. She was more tired and developed a cough but was better within about two weeks. Or so and was never as unwell to begin with.

Over 60,000 have been tested.

Presumably all those people had symptoms closely matching covid-19 which just shows how many other similar bugs there are about.

I would love to believe that I have had it and am now immune. I also had a nasty virus in December which lasted for six weeks.

But if it had been COVID19 I would have passed it on at very least to DH and the rest of the family over Christmas when we all got together. Some family members are frail and elderly so would not have been asymptomatic.

Statistical modelling of pandemics is very accurate once you know the infection rate. Had there been even one uncontrolled person in UK with Covid 19 in November 2019 there would already have been thousands of people dead.

paintcolourwoes - those symptoms do sound like Coronavirus.

I just read that patient zero as an ill old man in his 70s and bed ridden... they didn't think what he had was highly infectious at first because he didn't pass it on to his family... so it is possible to have it and not pass it on in certain circumstances?

I've been wondering for a while now how we think we know where it originated from - surely that's just where it was first discovered and tested for... and there is evidence to suggest 3 out of the 4 first known cases had no link to the market the world keeps banging on about anyway...
What happens if it was elsewhere to start with but it's just that in this particular place in China it was causing serious health problems on a large scale because they have such bad lung health?! So doctors were prompted therefore to investigate further.

Also, given symptoms can be really mild and so different, I'm not sure you anyone can say an infection wasn't corona simply because a person's lungs weren't 'on fire'. Here in the UK the official warning signs are a temperature and a persistent dry cough... yet further down the list are symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, aches and pains and fatigue. Are we just supposed to ignore those symptoms if we get them? Presumably there are plenty of people whose infections looked like this but never got tested because they weren't deemed serious enough symptoms.

It's all so wishy washy and until testing is accessible to all people there's just no way of really knowing the true picture of this new virus.

We talked about this (before social distancing and we could actually see friends) one of my friends came back from Hong kong in December and had the most terrible cough/chest thing. Was not able to come to gym or do not much weeks. He was so poorly. Everyone one I know in December including me had the most awful cough which felt like a cold but no runny nose etc.
We were wondering if loads of people had it then (everyone I knew was really quite poorly) but no one was being tested then and no kne knew about it.

@Lordamighty doesn’t it just?! Even my doctor friend didn’t scoff when I suggested the possibility; really if I had that same illness now it would be assumed that it was covid. Anyway, if it was, then for me (34yo female, generally good health) then it was ok but obviously unwell. I actually continued working through it, though not particularly effectively or productively. I have my own office so lower risk of transmission than other workers, but had it been now and covid risk being high I wouldn’t have, obviously. One thing I didn’t mention was an accompanying low mood/depression/lack of motivation for anything

First official case was mid November in China

So at least circulating there before then for min a few weeks

Probably ever since the military games were held in Wuhan in October

I’ve had for healthy young friends get pneumonia following a bout of flu this February

My family and I all very ill beginning of January lasting about 5-6 weeks

Off work, struggling to get out of bed and regular migraines when I hadn’t had them before
No appetite and sore throat