coronavirus do you think it was here in uk in december?

[Whensmydayofftoo]

In mid december my 11 year old ds came down with a fever I remember I couldn't control his temperature with calpol and nurofen which resulted in him going to hospital with a fainting attack he does suffer fainting when temp high. When in hospital I mentioned his croup type cough he developed and the fact hed been in bed for 5 days they couldn't get rid of him quick enough. It was like they knew something and were alarmed. When he was discharged they said to contact anyone who had the same symptoms that hed been in contact with and ask them to keep a good eye on them. He also had the lack of taste and took 3 weeks to recover i came down with similar but less severe. I have since found out half his class had it. So was just wondering could this have been coronavirus thankyou

Morning, all.
We're moving this thread over to the Coronavirus topic now.
Kim

No. I read an interview with a virologist who busted that particular myth. Using genetic tracing of the virus it was first found in a wet market in China in December.

Well considering it was first picked up/observed November (even though it wasn't declared until January) in china there is a possibility. Any deaths could have been attributed to normal pneumonia. I guess we will never know.

I'm sure we did. DH had it. Never seen him so sick. Identical symptoms. People keep dismissing it as seasonal flu that happens to have identical symptoms because they like the story that it started in a market stall in China. Then it's easy to blame the Chinese. I've seen so much casual racism on the back of that story. We don't actually know for certain where or when or how it began. But the number of people who don't usually get flu who were absolutely felled by high temperature, headaches and a dreadful dry hacking cough that wouldn't clear during December and January should be taken seriously and investigated.

I had something awful in late December, I've never felt so ill. Had a high fever, muscle aches, stinging red eyes, no sense of taste, loss of voice and a cough (although slight).

My kids both came down with much milder versions but DH escaped it.

I do wonder as I work in an office where people regularly travel all over the world, China in particular.

I mean I doubt it was CV but I still wonder.

My DH had a really bad cough & temperature loss of smell and taste in late Dec through to Jan. but he was able to walk the dogs and do general stuff although this did exhaust him.
In the end because he couldn’t stop coughing he had one of those push doctor Skype calls and got antibiotics. The doctor kept asking if my DH smoked at least 3 times in the 10 mins appointment which I did think was strange.
Even with the antibiotics it didn’t go and he had to get more in Feb when we were on holiday which did seem to work
But I didn’t get anything apart from two bouts of a sore throat 48hr bug where I felt wrecked

I think it was here in November at the VERY least. We know a friend of a friend who developed all the symptoms, seemed like he just had a bad cold, was walking around at a religious function fine as day and ended up in a ventilator in hospital the next morning. This person was otherwise healthy with no underlying conditions.

I doubt any official statements about when and how this disease first came to light. Especially information from China or the WHO whom, it appears, have become somewhat compromised.

Any government who would have become aware of the situation would have done what they can to protect their economy first. No way China would have done or said anything until very late.

My question is: if more people were ending up on ventilators here as early as November, this must have been recorded, noted and stats taken. Surely we must have had intelligence that something out of the ordinary was happening way before we were officially told or China officially announced anything.

Yep I went down with it in the third week of January. It stood out from other cold/flu viruses as also had heartburn and scattered neurological symptoms like pins and needles, tingling, twitching. Now I read the Lungs threads and it al makes sense.

There was something in late december and there is a little peak of deaths on the graph that went down again before the covid19 took off in march. I think it was probably just this years flu doing the rounds. We've started calling in pseudo-covid19.

Thai has been discussed to death it’s so infuriating. OP seasonal flu! Seasonal flu is probably what your child had or any other bloody virus. It’s exhausting that people on here believe they know more than virologists.

Thousands die every year from normal seasonal flu. It's a serious disease. Most folk will only experience it a couple of times in their lifetime. Most of the rest of the time it's a cold. Granted you get some pretty grotty colds, but they aren't flu. Flu feels really different.

All the things you had before feb at least were probably flu or some other virus.

@ICantBelieveInYou Is there somewhere we can see total number of deaths per week/month?

Search for ‘ONS deaths’ and you can download the stats going back years. Sorry, I can’t remember how to link

OP if it was in the UK and being spread around them the hospital death rates would have already started climbing. Lots of similar illnesses around.

There was a bad flu going around this winter. I got it mid November and didn’t fully recover until the end of January. If I got it now I would almost certainly think it was coronavirus. I think it’s very unlikely it was here in December.

Are people normally put on ventilators with complications arising from seasonal flu? If so, how often and how does 2019 Sept-Dec figures compare to 2017/18 sept-Dec for ventilator use? That is what I would like to know.

I had a relation die from seasonal flu a few years ago - she had a heart condition, but was keeping well until she caught flu. Flu vaccines are given in nursing and care homes near me, two of my adult children and my dh get them in work. My dd1 who works in the health service is encouraged to have it, but not given time off to get it; a lot of her colleagues don't bother.

No. I had a bad cold/flu over Christmas, persistent cough, high temperature, the works. I was ill for a couple of weeks when I usually shrug these things off in few days. If I got those symptoms now, I’d assume it was Coronavirus. However, if it was circulating as early as December, surely it would have spread like wildfire then and the peak would have happened much sooner?

@CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate exactly. There weren’t more people on ventilators and dying this winter there were less. It wasn’t here.

I had a friend in his 30s who died from seasonal flu. It’s shit. It happens

wasn't there a flu outbreak around christmas time? i remember receiving an email in work to say high number of flu cases was registering

this

Wishful thinking.

yes I think so. my son's primary school had over two weeks between 70 and 100 children off each day with a weird virus.
temp and cough some had upset tummy .

No it’ll be flu or another virus.
I had flu for the first time in my life a couple of winters ago and I had a horrible fever and couched so much, never experienced a cough like it, I sprained a rib muscle which was extremely painful.
Flu has very similar symptoms and yes it makes you very ill and wipes you out. If you’ve “never been that ill” back in December it’s likely a strain of flu you’ve never experienced before.

Our household all came down with a virus over Christmas. I remember struggling to stand up to serve Christmas Dinner. We all came down with something much worse in early February. Very odd as we are all rarely ill. DD who commutes to London on the tube (WFH now) felt like she was coming down with something first but didn’t, then the other 5 of us, in succession, had high temps and violent coughing which started a few days after the temps. No runny nose, sore throat, eye issues or loss of senses though. My temp was 104 at one point and I seriously considered going to A&E due to the fever. We all still have remnants of the cough over 2 months later. I dread to think that wasn’t CV!

@blossombabies well if they tested positive for flu it wasn’t COVID!