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"Weird cold" in February checking in. I did not have any temperature variations or fevers, but I got struck with a fatigue like no other. For the first time sin

"Weird cold" in February checking in. I did not have any temperature variations or fevers, but I got struck with a fatigue like no other. For the first time since I was 3 years old, I took afternoon naps three days in a row because I was just completely wiped out. It's rare for me to take a nap at all (happens maybe once a year)! It took two weeks to get out of this fatigued state. My other symptoms were "chills-like" sensations throughout the day, post-nasal drip and burning feeling in my chest/lungs but very minimal cough. My child did have COVID-19 symptoms back around Feb/March (can't remember exact time-frame) and I even wrote about that here on HN. Maybe I should take this test. I still think there's a possibility this virus was already in the US before 2020. I don't think they ever found a cause to the "mystery respiratory virus" in Virginia from July 2019: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/health-officials-to-give-update-after-respiratory-illness-sickens-dozens-at-virginia-retirement-community/135890/ https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/health-officials-to... > Three people have also died, but Dr. Benjamin Schwartz of the Fairfax County Health Department said Wednesday afternoon that those who died were "older" and had complex health problems. Officials don't yet know the extent to which the respiratory illness contributed to their deaths, he said.

jfoster 6y ago
I have been wondering why it is considered to have originated in Wuhan rather than Wuhan simply being the first major outbreak where it was identified as a novel coronavirus. Is it always the case that hospitals will be capable of identifying a new type of virus based on some patients who look like they have the flu? One thing that's known about covid-19 is that it has an unusual spread pattern. In some circumstances it might not spread too much (eg. average R0 is well less than 10) but in other circumstances where air is recirculating a lot or a particular patient is very contagious, it seems to spread a lot more. Couple that with many people being asymptomatic. So, what if it had been spreading in many places but Wuhan was simply the first place where it was detected? It seems to be capable of spreading without being detected for quite a while in many other parts of the world. (eg. Singapore's foreign worker dormitories)
- shawabawa3 6y ago
  I believe DNA studies have linked the origin to bats in the area of wuhan
  - bb2018 6y ago
    That isn't true. The bats that it mostly likely come from are in China - but in Southern China about 1000 miles from Wuhan.
    - pnako 6y ago
      In Wuhan is the lab that was researching the virus from those bats.
      - redis_mlc 6y ago
        Almost correct. The "lab" was actually doing corona virus research, and funded by the US govt. Corona is so contagious, that combined with Wuhan being an international airport that connects to Shanghai, the #8 international airport in the world, this was the perfect storm for a pandemic.
        gamblor956 6y ago
        If by "funded by the US govt" you mean funded primarily by the Chinese government, with additional funding provided by the US and EU, due to the nature of the lab's work... https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52318539 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52318539
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - drran 6y ago
        In Russia, virus lab had major incident at Sep 16 2019. Paint job caused blast and fire, so responders come in to fight fire and STOLE SOME EQUIPMENT FROM LEVEL 4 VIRUS LAB, which was caught on video here: https://youtu.be/_w7SAeNcXA8?t=63 https://youtu.be/_w7SAeNcXA8?t=63 (look at man in uniform in background).
jrockway 6y ago
I agree with you on being open to thinking that COVID-19 arrived earlier than was initially thought. When I first shared my "weird cold" story on HN, the consensus was that I was a crazy person and there was no way that could be COVID-19. There would be more deaths if it had been here. But now there are some deaths, and a large number of people with "weird cold" stories, and it really makes me think that a lot of people have already had this. Maybe the doctors at the time didn't recognize it as COVID-19 (I didn't when I had my weird cold). Maybe the numbers that we see now are just wrong; i.e. the recorded cases we have are just the tip of the iceberg (and if you tested everyone every week, we would have hundreds of millions of cases). Or maybe that weird cold was just a weird cold and nothing more. It seems unlikely to me, but I'm open to it. I hate to make public policy suggestions on anecdotes... but someone should really look into that weird cold. Everyone in New York had it. It sure is weird.
- xyhopguy 6y ago
  people say that because .25% of the population in NYC are dead from covid. we dont see those numbers here -- if it was widespread in feb, what caused the discrepancy?
  - weaksauce 6y ago
    different strains?
    - elorant 6y ago
      Viruses tend to become less lethal as time passes, not more.
      - risaacs99 6y ago
        I keep reading people asserting this, and I assume it's because we believe that a virus that becomes less lethal would have an evolutionary advantage. But, wouldn't lengthening the incubation period also be a successful evolutionary strategy regardless of lethality? It seems to me that there are many possible strategies that a mutating virus might gain an advantage and we shouldn't just assume that the only one that they would use would be to become more mild. Luckily, sars-cov-2 seems relatively stable.
alexbanks 6y ago
"Weird cold" in February checking in. Fever, back pain, chills, post nasal drip. Felt bad for ~3 days and then felt better. Getting antibody tested tomorrow, will report back.
- heretoo 6y ago
  https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494042-first-us-coronavirus-death-occurred-in-california-in-february-autopsy https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494042-first-us-cor... First deaths in February for the United States.
- santiagogo 6y ago
  Same here. Rushed to the hospital after two nights of not sleeping from the back pain and chills at end of Feb. First time I've ever taken an injection for pain relief.
verylittlemeat 6y ago
Crazy, I had the exact same symptoms during last week of Feb / first week of Mar. I was so wiped out that I was taking naps in a conference room at lunch. A friend of mine caught me and was surprised because normally I work through lunch, let alone sleep. No cough, no fever but just this terribly uncomfortable feeling of congestion in my throat and upper chest. Best thing I can compare it to is postal nasal drip like you said.
- wighty 6y ago
  I'm a family physician working in an outpatient office... there's just so many viruses that can explain those types of symptoms that are STILL more common than sars-cov-2. I saw a 31yo 2/18 with primarily sore throat, aches/feverish (not documented), and again on 2/20 because the sore throat got significantly worse. I started feeling iffy 2/21 (Friday) evening and worse Saturday with a bad sore throat and fever around 102F, lymphadenopathy, this persisted for at least 2 days. I went to work on Tuesday and did a rapid strep (I did not feel I had strep but the other doctor wanted to do it)... I'm not really thinking that was covid19.
docbrown 6y ago
> I still think there's a possibility this virus was already in the US before 2020. Yeah, I don’t understand why people are so against the idea of it being in the U.S. before 2020. There’s no possible way we can trace every American who may have traveled within the China region or interacted with another person who was in that region around the start of COVID spreading. Just because there were no official cases of COVID does not mean it was not here. I had a roommate visit Japan in November. He came back and was extremely ill for about a week. No hospitalizations but he was out of commission and isolated by himself.
- kbenson 6y ago
  I think the main evidence against it being here siginifgantly earlier is that we see how it spread when it was definitely here, so why wouldn't we have seen hot spots like Atlanta and New York earlier then?
  - Filligree 6y ago
    Perhaps it mutated at some point to become more infectious, and that mutation happened in Asia.
  - docbrown 6y ago
    I understand that line of thinking but that would imply the prevalence rate of COVID was in complete parallel with the incidence rate. The former is what we do not know and that's clear when we've had patients labs reran from 2019 and found it was positive for COVID. Government data from China says the first case can be traced back to 17 November 2019 and even then they're unsure if that was patient zero[0] How many American's were in Asia, China, or surrounding areas between October and December of 2019? How many of them were possibly infected? Nobody knows because there was no plan put in place with regard to travel to mainland China until the end of January 2020; even then since 1 January 2020, there were 430,000 people who traveled from China to the U.S.[1] 0: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coro... 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/coronavirus-china-travel-restrictions.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/coronavirus-china-trav...
jki275 6y ago
I had similar symptoms. Also in VA, same time frame. I’m going to do the test when it’s available here as well.
Filligree 6y ago
Mine was in late March. I guess the quarantine efforts paid off! Sure would like to try that antibody test.
np_tedious 6y ago
This is just about identical to my experience in early March. No (or at least no observed) fever, a distinctive but not awful sore throat, and intense fatigue. Urgent care clinic did not test for the virus, or even for the flu. I tested positive for antibodies last week.

jfoster 6y ago

I have been wondering why it is considered to have originated in Wuhan rather than Wuhan simply being the first major outbreak where it was identified as a novel coronavirus. Is it always the case that hospitals will be capable of identifying a new type of virus based on some patients who look like they have the flu? One thing that's known about covid-19 is that it has an unusual spread pattern. In some circumstances it might not spread too much (eg. average R0 is well less than 10) but in other circumstances where air is recirculating a lot or a particular patient is very contagious, it seems to spread a lot more. Couple that with many people being asymptomatic. So, what if it had been spreading in many places but Wuhan was simply the first place where it was detected? It seems to be capable of spreading without being detected for quite a while in many other parts of the world. (eg. Singapore's foreign worker dormitories)

shawabawa3 6y ago
I believe DNA studies have linked the origin to bats in the area of wuhan
- bb2018 6y ago
  That isn't true. The bats that it mostly likely come from are in China - but in Southern China about 1000 miles from Wuhan.
  - pnako 6y ago
    In Wuhan is the lab that was researching the virus from those bats.
    - redis_mlc 6y ago
      Almost correct. The "lab" was actually doing corona virus research, and funded by the US govt. Corona is so contagious, that combined with Wuhan being an international airport that connects to Shanghai, the #8 international airport in the world, this was the perfect storm for a pandemic.
      - gamblor956 6y ago
        If by "funded by the US govt" you mean funded primarily by the Chinese government, with additional funding provided by the US and EU, due to the nature of the lab's work... https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52318539 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52318539
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - drran 6y ago
      In Russia, virus lab had major incident at Sep 16 2019. Paint job caused blast and fire, so responders come in to fight fire and STOLE SOME EQUIPMENT FROM LEVEL 4 VIRUS LAB, which was caught on video here: https://youtu.be/_w7SAeNcXA8?t=63 https://youtu.be/_w7SAeNcXA8?t=63 (look at man in uniform in background).

jrockway 6y ago

I agree with you on being open to thinking that COVID-19 arrived earlier than was initially thought. When I first shared my "weird cold" story on HN, the consensus was that I was a crazy person and there was no way that could be COVID-19. There would be more deaths if it had been here. But now there are some deaths, and a large number of people with "weird cold" stories, and it really makes me think that a lot of people have already had this. Maybe the doctors at the time didn't recognize it as COVID-19 (I didn't when I had my weird cold). Maybe the numbers that we see now are just wrong; i.e. the recorded cases we have are just the tip of the iceberg (and if you tested everyone every week, we would have hundreds of millions of cases). Or maybe that weird cold was just a weird cold and nothing more. It seems unlikely to me, but I'm open to it. I hate to make public policy suggestions on anecdotes... but someone should really look into that weird cold. Everyone in New York had it. It sure is weird.

xyhopguy 6y ago
people say that because .25% of the population in NYC are dead from covid. we dont see those numbers here -- if it was widespread in feb, what caused the discrepancy?
- weaksauce 6y ago
  different strains?
  - elorant 6y ago
    Viruses tend to become less lethal as time passes, not more.
    - risaacs99 6y ago
      I keep reading people asserting this, and I assume it's because we believe that a virus that becomes less lethal would have an evolutionary advantage. But, wouldn't lengthening the incubation period also be a successful evolutionary strategy regardless of lethality? It seems to me that there are many possible strategies that a mutating virus might gain an advantage and we shouldn't just assume that the only one that they would use would be to become more mild. Luckily, sars-cov-2 seems relatively stable.

alexbanks 6y ago

"Weird cold" in February checking in. Fever, back pain, chills, post nasal drip. Felt bad for ~3 days and then felt better. Getting antibody tested tomorrow, will report back.

heretoo 6y ago
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494042-first-us-coronavirus-death-occurred-in-california-in-february-autopsy https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494042-first-us-cor... First deaths in February for the United States.
santiagogo 6y ago
Same here. Rushed to the hospital after two nights of not sleeping from the back pain and chills at end of Feb. First time I've ever taken an injection for pain relief.

verylittlemeat 6y ago

Crazy, I had the exact same symptoms during last week of Feb / first week of Mar. I was so wiped out that I was taking naps in a conference room at lunch. A friend of mine caught me and was surprised because normally I work through lunch, let alone sleep. No cough, no fever but just this terribly uncomfortable feeling of congestion in my throat and upper chest. Best thing I can compare it to is postal nasal drip like you said.

wighty 6y ago
I'm a family physician working in an outpatient office... there's just so many viruses that can explain those types of symptoms that are STILL more common than sars-cov-2. I saw a 31yo 2/18 with primarily sore throat, aches/feverish (not documented), and again on 2/20 because the sore throat got significantly worse. I started feeling iffy 2/21 (Friday) evening and worse Saturday with a bad sore throat and fever around 102F, lymphadenopathy, this persisted for at least 2 days. I went to work on Tuesday and did a rapid strep (I did not feel I had strep but the other doctor wanted to do it)... I'm not really thinking that was covid19.

docbrown 6y ago

> I still think there's a possibility this virus was already in the US before 2020. Yeah, I don’t understand why people are so against the idea of it being in the U.S. before 2020. There’s no possible way we can trace every American who may have traveled within the China region or interacted with another person who was in that region around the start of COVID spreading. Just because there were no official cases of COVID does not mean it was not here. I had a roommate visit Japan in November. He came back and was extremely ill for about a week. No hospitalizations but he was out of commission and isolated by himself.

kbenson 6y ago
I think the main evidence against it being here siginifgantly earlier is that we see how it spread when it was definitely here, so why wouldn't we have seen hot spots like Atlanta and New York earlier then?
- Filligree 6y ago
  Perhaps it mutated at some point to become more infectious, and that mutation happened in Asia.
- docbrown 6y ago
  I understand that line of thinking but that would imply the prevalence rate of COVID was in complete parallel with the incidence rate. The former is what we do not know and that's clear when we've had patients labs reran from 2019 and found it was positive for COVID. Government data from China says the first case can be traced back to 17 November 2019 and even then they're unsure if that was patient zero[0] How many American's were in Asia, China, or surrounding areas between October and December of 2019? How many of them were possibly infected? Nobody knows because there was no plan put in place with regard to travel to mainland China until the end of January 2020; even then since 1 January 2020, there were 430,000 people who traveled from China to the U.S.[1] 0: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coro... 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/coronavirus-china-travel-restrictions.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/coronavirus-china-trav...

jki275 6y ago

I had similar symptoms. Also in VA, same time frame. I’m going to do the test when it’s available here as well.

Filligree 6y ago

Mine was in late March. I guess the quarantine efforts paid off! Sure would like to try that antibody test.

np_tedious 6y ago

This is just about identical to my experience in early March. No (or at least no observed) fever, a distinctive but not awful sore throat, and intense fatigue. Urgent care clinic did not test for the virus, or even for the flu. I tested positive for antibodies last week.