[ipqk]

I know a bunch of NYCers that swore they got covid in Jan 2020, but it's both mathematically impossible for all of them to have had it based on the circulating numbers at the time, and then when they actually got Covid in the coming months/years they changed their tune.

[taeric]

Oddly, I assumed I had it early in the waves. Never got a positive test, as folks weren't testing back then. Finally had our first positive test this year. And whatever I had at the start was way way worse than when I had covid. Such that I can understand a lot of folks being very confused on all of this.

[lamontcg]

A common cold that turns into bronchial pneumonia can be substantially worse than SARS-CoV-2 in any given person.

That doesn't make the common cold worse than SARS-CoV-2 on average.

[taeric]

Honestly, odds are high I did have an early covid case. Was like an asthma attack with a few nights of fever. And I had every symptom. (Though, my understanding is loss of smell came and went as symptoms? I can't remember what the final call on that was.) I never got a confirmed test, as they weren't testing then.

Mostly irrelevant, as I don't think it would change anything else. Keep your distance and try not to get people sick is still good advice. I just offer it as understanding that there is a lot to be confused about on this. Kind of like early claims that kids couldn't get it. Which is asinine on evidence of everything kids spread through the family.

[lamontcg]

My understanding is that the loss of smell from early COVID tends to be fairly profound. It makes food disgusting. You can burn food on the stove and not smell it even after the fire alarm goes off. And it recovers slowly. It isn't like the usual changes in taste/smell during an infection which are mostly due to the symptoms of rhinitis and clear up when they clear up.

[mullingitover]

An article from the journal Lung[1] points out that Post-Viral Anosmia isn't exclusive to Covid[1]. It occurred with other viral infections, which is why you can have someone with a bunch of seemingly Covid-like symptoms but not have Covid. There's also this lit review[2] showing that destruction of the olfactory epithelium can occur in Parainfluenza virus, Human Coronavirus, and Rhinovirus.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8067782/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7236684/

[taeric]

Yeah, that was my understanding, and is what I had. Was odd to find I could breath just fine, but couldn't smell coffee.

Had a similar thing happen a year ago, where I couldn't even smell menthol rub. Could breath, just couldn't smell. That time, though, I was testing and never got a positive test. I thought, at the time, the general idea was that loss of smell wasn't a thing, anymore. Maybe not?

[kcplate]

I didn’t have anything early (I’ve never caught it despite multiple direct exposures, but I rarely get sick from anything anyway), but both my wife and son-in-law came back from separate business trips in late January/early Feb 2020 with all the classic symptoms. Both subsequently caught Covid in 2022 and both described the experience as very similar to their 2020 experiences.

No way to know for sure if it was Covid in 2020 since no testing at the time of their illness, but I would not be willing to bet against the possibility despite all the “it would have been impossible due to…” theorizing some folks have said on this thread.

[lamontcg]

late Jan / early Feb becomes more possible. there was certainly cryptic spread by then that was happening over airplane travel. both of them getting it would be unlikely though unless both of them were in china or italy or had contact with people from there.

but you simply cannot diagnose covid just via symptoms. every symptom that covid causes can be caused by other respiratory viruses, covid just makes it more likely that you'll get more severe symptoms.

2019/2020 cold and flu season, before covid showed up, was also a particularly bad year, with H1N1 back and influenza B spreading at the same time (plus RSV, common cold coronaviruses, human metapneumovirus and everything else).

[kcplate]

Oh certainly could have been another respiratory ailment, but the abundance of coincidence to timing, symptoms (which were quite severe), and a general assumption that it’s not over here just make me skeptical of claims that “it couldn’t be covid because…”

[lamontcg]

You can't diagnose COVID on the basis of severity though.

I caught absolutely the worst flu of my adult life (in fact might have been the only case of flu I've caught in my adult life), but it was 12 months earlier in Jan 2019 so I'm positive it wasn't COVID. Ran a 103F fever for 72 hours straight, probably should have gone to the ER, was wiped out for about a month afterwards with post-viral fatigue. Had it happened 12 months later it would have looked a lot like COVID. I suspect it was just H1N1 which was ripping around the globe again after having gone fairly quiet a few years after the 2009 pandemic (and I never caught it back in 2009). Basically the same H1N1 strain was still going around in the 19/20 season.

[taeric]

This does make me wonder if having covid and h1n1 circulating at the same time wasn't much more of the problem than either one in isolation.

Specifically, something was different about that first wave of covid. Yes, it stayed deadly. Early waves that were overwhelming hospitals, though, were tiny compared to what came later.

I also still can't but think covid was far more widespread than we understand, even today. By the time that folks acknowledged that schools could be spreading it, it is hard not to think basically every kid hadn't been exposed.