I don't believe that COVID only arrived in the Uk in February

[GlitterToast]

I remember in February (I think) when the apparent first case of corona came to the UK, and there was much talk of a "superspreader".

However, I am convinced that if the virus has been evident in China since November, then it would have arrived here much sooner.

Personally, I was horrendously ill in late January. Everyone told me that I had a bad cold, but it was honestly the worst cold I have ever had in my entire life. I kept having hot and cold flushes and I had an awful cough. I couldn't get out of bed for a week. I'm not saying that I had corona, but I had something awful.

Nope, all the early cases were people who’d been abroad. It wasn’t till later that cases were found who weren’t linked to foreign travel. The numbers don’t support earlier community transmission.

We are convinced MIL had it before Christmas. She had all the symptoms and had to be intubated, we weren't at all sure she would recover. The medical team were unable to identify what was wrong other than a really nasty virus. Thankfully she made a full recovery, pretty remarkable as she is 83 with health conditions.

Every single person who was ill over the winter is now convinced they had Corona . People get very ill every year. If you were ill in January it is HIGHLY unlikely you had it. Added to which, had you had it, you would have infected lots of people around you. That didn't happen. You had a cold. Or the seasonal flu.

It's almost like people have forgotten that other viruses existed before February and coronavirus was almost certainly not spreading to randomers at that point or we would've known about it.

Well yes I will believe you a mumsnetter over the scientists who actually have the data to research it. The oxford paper said they suspect it started spreading the end of January in the UK.

If it was here earlier wouldn’t we have had lots of deaths much earlier. And NHS staff would have been raising concerns regarding patients presenting with the same set of symptoms? And if it’s so highly contagious and obviously no lockdown in Jan/Feb, wouldn’t we have been in major crisis weeks ago?

From what I’ve read on MN & youtube comments, I think there maybe substance to your hypothesis... loads of anecdotal stories of people with classic cv symptoms of a weird virus like no other had before, that started december/january time. I’d love a scientist to investigate this, whether it was actually cv or another weird nasty bug doing the rounds.

@RestYourHead I am very happy your MIL recovered but at her age almost any mild virus could have turned into something very serious for her.

It had just started spreading extensively in Wuhan in December so unless she was in contact with someone who had just travelled form Wuhan before Christmas and that person had already got the virus then no she didn’t have it.

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There are other viruses than coronavirus that exist although most Mumsnetters insist that every cough, headache, sneeze and sniffle since July last year must have been coronavirus.

All you have to do is look at the speed Covid spreads to know it is not what you had. I have friends who were in hospital with pneumonia with flu and I had something that ticks all the boxes symptom wise myself, however, the likelihood is I would have passed it on to my husband and kids and, even if they did not display symptoms, they would have passed it on at school and work. We are having the lockdown now because it is here and cases are going through the roof in some areas. Do you really think that you could have got it without it spreading widely? Comforting thought to think it's over and done for you but please don't act in a way that would put you or others at risk in the presumption it was.

You can believe whatever you want.

You are wrong, though.

the doctor expressed concern to me before Christmas. I’ve had some touch and go experience with pneumonia and she said there was a new type doing the rounds.

@BahHumbygge I think it’s been stated many times that ‘classic CV symptoms’ are basically exactly the same as classic flu symptoms. It is infinitely more likely that all these people just had the normal flu rather than coronavirus. It seems everybody has forgotten that influenza exists (the most prevalent illness is winter months every year) since CV came about.

The first person to person transmission in U.K. Was mid-Feb, wasn't it?

A lot of people who had symptoms around that time (and who had travelled or been in close touch with a returned traveller) were being tested back then. The vast, vast majority of those symptomatic people were negative. So it is quite likely that there was a nasty non-CV cold with a cough going round then.

One of my DC was very ill then with symptoms which would now mean a working diagnosis of COVID-19. That was mid/late Feb, so might have been either that non--CV lurgy, or just possibly on those timescales CV. If we do get widespread antibody testing, it would interesting to see if he'd had it. But we won't be a priority for testing.

So all those that had COVID-19 (a strain of a common virus the coronavirus) self isolated as soon as they were infected

And those cases were isolated yet somehow everyone else’s isn’t

It’s simple there would have been far more people being admitted to hospital or visiting their GP

I developed something like this virus in January 2019 after a flight.whatever it was the symptoms were the same as described now , with the breathlessness as the major issue .
I have no underlying health issues but I went from being general gym goer fit, to being unable to speak for more than thirty seconds on the phone without gasping for air.
I saw a doctor three times and had several x rays and lots of blood taken . Fatigue. Loss of taste/ smell.severe cough. All tests inconclusive .My children had the same and it wiped us all out for a year. Yep! A year. Interestingly one of my family had only very mild symptoms, she’s the only one of us to have had the tb vaccine within the last 15 years.

My friend went skiing in Italy in January- came home suffering with flu. Originally advised it was a horrible virus and only much later diagnosed with Covid-19.

She didn't leave her house much for the first couple of weeks but then had to return to work (commutes by train). Then developed pneumonia and later pleurisy. Still out of action now.

I imagine there were a few skiers who return from certain resorts in Italy with more than a tan.

Sorry that wasn't v clear - she didn't commute knowing she had CV, she thought she was recovering from flu. Recovery only lasted a couple of days.

My friend was convinced she had Covid-19 late Jan/early Feb (lives in London) but it was seasonal flu - she is just recovering from Properly diagnosed coved-19 - she says for her civil-19 was much worse!

Every single person who was ill over the winter is now convinced they had Corona

^whilst not being able to explain why there weren’t hundreds of daily deaths and hospital admissions.

Civil! Coved-19 - surprised predictive txt isn’t aware if it!

My manager was off sick in the New Year. She couldn't stop coughing, and said she'd been on all fours trying to catch her breath. We are all convinced that the symptoms she described at that time match Covid-19.

Wasn't there a study that said 30 million of us might have already had it?

PoorlyWeasels they might match COVID-19 that doesn’t mean it was

These are isolated cases COVID-19 is a very highly contagious virus that’s why we have lock downs worldwide