BBC Article on possible CV-19 cases in the UK in January

[CaveMum]

Wonder what your thoughts are on this article - written by an epidemiologist who is investigating a choir who had several members displaying classic Covid symptoms in January - 2 months before the first official cases.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52589449

I’m definitely not one of the tin foil hat wearing brigade, but I do wonder if this has been circulating for a lot longer than the official numbers tell us. DH is pretty convinced we both had it back in February as within a week of each other (me first, then him) we were both floored by an awful virus that had very similar symptoms to CV. It took us both weeks to shake off the cough and we both said that we’d never felt so awful - we’re both pretty healthy individuals, rarely off work sick, etc.

Of course the flip side of that is why did we not seeing an increase in deaths back in January/February? Perhaps the only way we’ll know is once a reliable antibody test is developed and when we can look back over the whole year at the total number of deaths, etc.

Not too sure why people keep talking about coughs they’ve had a year ago to prove someone’s illness this year wasn’t COVID

@Rebelwithallthecause because people keep posting saying they had a cough in Nov/ Dec/ Jan therefore it MUST have been Covid. Pointing out these cough viruses happen every year coupled with the fact that only 5% of people tested are positive shows that much of the time these cough viruses are proven not to be Covid. It’s not that hard to understand!

In France they discovered that when they went back and analysed blood samples taken from people hospitalised with pneumonia and symptoms that they hadn't been able to put a definite diagnosis to from December last year, one of the 28(?) samples had evidence of COVID-19.

If it was in France then, I suspect it was also in the UK. albeit in very small numbers and not fully taken hold.

Covid symptoms in January - 2 months before the first official cases.

?? First official case was on 31 January I believe, so there were very likely cases here before that.

It doesn’t follow at all that half the country had had it by January just because they had a nasty cough.

It would be hugely helpful regarding immunity to know though wouldn’t it?
I realise that my illness in February was more than likely a seasonal coughing bug but on the off chance it was Covid an antibody test would be the way to go personally and to monitor how the disease has progressed in the community.