Several new articles out in recent days suggest corona virus may have been circulating unnoticed in the United States for months, going back at far as early Fall before it was noticed. The possibility is being used to explain why California has largely escaped the epidemic, due to, it is postulated, herd immunity acquired over last fall and winter from large portions of the populations being exposed to a milder strain of the virus, leaving fewer hosts to catch and pass the disease on.
New signs suggest coronavirus was in California far earlier than anyone knew
Coronavirus may have been circulating in California since early February
Coronavirus: The California Herd
This winter many people complained of very severe coughs that wouldn’t go away or feeling flu like symptoms, but testing negative for the flu. I was sick for a good two weeks from later January lasting into early February. While I never had a fever, I rarely get fevers and I was chugging Dayquil and Nyquil. I went through four bottles of each having never finished more than a bottle before. I got sick, tried to work through it, and then got even sicker with the worse two days feeling like I was hit by the proverbial truck, and I lay in bed feeling like I would never be well again. While I eventually recovered, I was sick for at least 15 days and the truth is, I have never felt like I have fully recovered my normal lung capacity. I get short of breath after moderate exertion much more so than in the past, and have for a month or more felt general malaise, although I have been doing better in the last week.
Without antibody testing, there is no way to know if I had corona, but it is plausible. My wife had a part-time job as a nurse at a school where there were many students from china, and some reported cough and flu to her. While I can’t say if I did have it, if I spread it to anyone, but I may not have spread it, as I am a fairly solitary being and other than work, don’t go out much and tend to isolate myself whether at work, home or out in the community.
I sure hope I had Corona. That would make my life much easier if only I knew. I would stress out much less about the crappy PPE we have and all the COVID patients I have to care for.
In the movie The Meg (like its predecessor Jaws), there is a moment of jubilation when a large shark (the believed villain is killed), but it turns out a bigger more menacing shark still patrols the oceans, just waiting for its chance to lunch on the heroes.
That’s my worry. When I think maybe I had corona in late January/ early February as it possibly first began to circulate unnoticed in American, I worry that a premature celebration on my part may anger the real ten foot corona aka COVID-19, sir!, lurking just around the corner ready to make its entrance and absolutely crush me, send me to the ICU, put me on a ventilator, and then drop me six feet under the earth.
