[pluto9]

Something really nasty swept through my office (in the US) at the end of January, and one employee actually died. Some of us were speculating that it could have been early cases of COVID-19, but symptoms only lasted for about 5 days for most of us. From what I can find online, COVID symptoms tend to last about 10-14 days.

[paulmd]

There's some suspicion that there are two strains of COVID and one is nastier than the other.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/scientists-identified-strains-...

https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr...

And, see my other post, but some researchers suspect that COVID was circulating in Washington (likely elsewhere as well) since about mid-january, so very possible.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22551360

[pluto9]

Interesting. I suppose it's possible. Whatever went around was incredibly contagious compared to the usual flu. Almost the entire office, including myself, came down with it over the course of 1-2 weeks.

I'd like to think you're right. It'd be nice to know that I and the people I'm in regular contact with already have some immunity.

[maoeurk]

I got extremely sick with the flu (confirmed influenza type A by test) at the end of January/early February this year in San Francisco despite being vaccinated. I've had the flu once or twice before but I don't remember it being this bad.

It lasted about 5-7 days and came with a high fever, full body pain and soreness to the extent that any type of movement was difficult, delirium and confusion, difficulty eating, and vomiting for 1-2 days (which isn't typical of the flu as I understand it).

I'm 24 and generally in very good health and felt that without modern medicine and sanitation I could have easily died from this. I lost about 5% of my body weight and a lot of muscle.

The reaction to COVID-19 makes me wish we, as a society, took preventative health more seriously in general as the common diseases can be extremely nasty too.

In fact from everything I've heard about COVID-19, it sounds like it wouldn't have been nearly as bad for someone my age as the flu was for me this year.