Do you think you already had COVID-19? Many people think that their winter flu may have actually been a coronavirus. Find out now. This video shows how to protect yourself and your family from this illness. https://bit.ly/34rqXDq

1. Fact check: Could your
December cough actually have
been coronavirus? Experts say
more research is needed
Flavio Sarabia
Apr 10 · 5 min read
Anyone can publish on Medium per our Policies, but we don’t fact-check
every story. For more info about the coronavirus, see cdc.gov.

2. The claim: People who su1ered from a
round of illness in November and
December likely had the coronavirus
A handful of widely circulated Facebook posts have asserted
that people in the United States likely contracted the
coronavirus as early as last fall.
“Who got sick in November or December and it lasted 10 to
14 days, with the worst cough that wouldn’t go away?” the
posts say. “If you can answer, yes, then you probably had the
coronavirus. There were no tests and the Ju test would come
back negative anyway. They called it a severe upper
respiratory infection.”
Many of the posts currently circulating include the proLle
photo of a Facebook user named Donna Lee Collier. Collier
did not respond to a USA TODAY request for comment on the
origin of the posts.
Bonnie Powell, of Waynesboro, Georgia, copied the status
and received more than 230 shares. She said the post reJects
her opinion, not necessarily scientiLc proof. But she said she

3. had heard from friends about sickness at the end of last year,
which makes her suspicious.
“Our area has had a very virulent ‘Ju’ season with many of
my friends testing negative for Ju,” she said in a Facebook
message.
This FREE video shows how to protect yourself and your
family from COVID-19
Coronavirus likely originated in
November,was @rst in U.S.in January
Fact check:Coronavirus originated in China, not elsewhere,
researchers and studies say Fact check:Is COVID-19 caused
by human consumption of animals?
Researchers have tied the origin of the virus to a live animal
market in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization
Lrst received a report of the outbreak on Dec. 31, but the
virus originated in China more than a month earlier than
that. A study published in early March by researchers at ETH
Zurich puts the origin of the virus in the Lrst half of
November.

4. Rumors surrounding the origins of the novel coronavirus
have swirled as it spreads around the globe. Theories that
the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, or that it
originated outside of China and was brought over by the U.S.
Army, are not supported by evidence, according to medical
experts. The virus is believed to have animal origins, likely in
bats.
On Jan. 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
announced the Lrst case of novel coronavirus in the United
States from a person who had recently returned to
Washington from Wuhan. The United States has since
surpassed China and Italy to become the most infected
country in the world, according to a tracker from Johns
Hopkins University.
Symptoms of the novel coronavirus include a fever, cough
and shortness of breath. Reported illnesses range from mild
symptoms to severe symptoms and death.
This FREE video shows how to protect yourself and your
family from COVID-19
Could the coronavirus have been in the

5. U.S.before January?
Experts say it’s plausible that coronavirus came over to the
U.S. from China before that Lrst January case, but more
testing is needed to be sure.
“Anecdotally, we’ve heard about some inJuenza-like illnesses
in December and January that were a little bit atypical,” said
Dr. Luis Ostrosky, a professor of infectious diseases at
McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston. “But the
thing we need to solve that puzzle is when we actually start
doing testing of antibodies, not just detecting the virus.”
Ostrosky said that would include taking a look at blood
samples from December and January to see if the virus was
already in circulation.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American
Public Health Association, said he believes when researchers
do more testing, they will probably Lnd the disease was in
the U.S. earlier than Lrst believed.
“I believe at the end of this, when we do look back — and we
will — we will probably Lnd that this disease was here
earlier than we thought,” he said. “We also know that when
we closed our borders, it was very, very leaky.”

6. However, Benjamin said it’s “plausible but not likely” that the
coronavirus was in the United States in November and
December. If it were in the U.S. before the end of the year,
the case would also have likely been connected to travel from
China, he said, and likely not widespread.
This FREE video shows how to protect yourself and your
family from COVID-19
Dr. Josh Petrie, assistant research professor at the University
of Michigan School of Public Health, said it’s important to
remember that multiple existing viruses can cause severe
upper respiratory symptoms and circulated late last year.
Among them was InJuenza B, which grew in intensity
around November and December, as well as RSV and
InJuenza A.
He said it’s possible there were “sporadic” travel-related
cases earlier than the discovery of the Lrst case but agreed it
was likely not widespread as far back as November or
December.
“There’s a lot of surveillance that goes on for inJuenza every
year, and so if we were seeing a lot of coronavirus activity at
that time — even if you couldn’t test for it — you would see

7. signals in that inJuenza surveillance,” he said.
Would already having the coronavirus make someone
immune to further infection by it? That’s also still under
investigation. Ostrosky said that, in general terms, other
coronaviruses do result in built-up immunity.
A New York Times article published Wednesday about
research edorts underway to study antibodies characterized
the answer to the immunity question as “a qualiLed yes, with
some signiLcant unknowns.” Dr. Vineet D. Menachery, a
virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at
Galveston, told the Times that people who are infected may
have one to two years of immunity, with any longer time
span hard to predict.
Our ruling: More information needed
At this point, experts contacted by USA TODAY say it’s
unlikely that just because someone had a cough or other
symptoms of an upper respiratory infection that they
“probably had the coronavirus,” especially as far back as
November.
But it’s also plausible that some cases did arrive in the U.S.

8. earlier than the Lrst reported case in January. Experts say
additional testing and research is needed to get an exact
picture.
This FREE video shows how to protect yourself and your
family from COVID-19
. . .
Originally published at https://www.usatoday.com.
Covid 19 Coronavirus Health Flu Illness
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