I think you're right. My wife spent the week of Christmas 2019 in North Carolina with her mother who was hospitalized with breathing difficulties. We suspect Covid; fortunately they didn't put her on a ventilator and she's still with us at 83, feisty as ever.
Sounds like it was before all the “experts” got involved and assumed if you have Covid, they put you on an event until you die. At that time they probably treated it as a normal winter cold/flu..