Was there an increase in people hospitalized with unknown breathing problems? None of these “early infection” stories cite increased hospitalizations making it seem like the early COVID was a less dangerous variant.
Hard to say. No one was looking for Covid-19 back in December. Everyone was thinking it was contained in China and they WHO stated it couldn’t be transmitted human-to-human.
I was flying between Tampa and Detroit almost weekly in January and February. After one flight, I had the absolute worst cold I’ve ever experienced. Quick onset, chills, fever, muscle ache, headache. All the classic symptoms of Covid-19. I had a flu shot earlier this year, but because of my age; 65+ and an underlying condition of hypertension my Dr. wanted me to have a pneumonia shot as well. I didn’t get around to it, so I attributed my bad cold to that reason.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I had the Covid-19 virus and just wasn’t aware of it. I think it’s been with us a lot longer than people realize.
Before the panic ensued, people were dealing with their illnesses as a typical flu/cold or other common respiratory illnesses and not running to the hospital to get tested for COVID. They may have gone to the hospital with breathing issues, been tested for flu and found negative and got treated generally as ILI (influenza-like illness).