I often wonder whether Covid hit much earlier than we all previously thought. In November of 2019, my mother became very sick. She had recently dined with a friend. This friend had just recovered from “pneumonia” after visiting China. When mom visited for Thanksgiving she could hardly participate in the day. The next six months were hard for her, she had trouble breathing and had shortness of breath. Nothing seemed to work and the doctors chalked it up to a pneumonia. Eventually she recovered.
My Son’s Unexplained Ear Infection
After seeing my mother, one of my children became very sick. He had a raging ear infection and antibiotics did not help him recover. We saw an ENT several times and he was as baffled as I was. My son had a high fever, would return to school with no fever and then would get a fever again. This went on for three weeks. He missed many days of school. On the last visit to the ENT, the receptionist was clearly very ill. I’m convinced that Covid was already spreading through our community. Covid hit earlier than we were all led to believe.
My youngest child had a fever but no other symptoms and my husband and I never got sick. Today we know that researchers believe that Covid was circulating two months before December of 2019.
Fear Made Covid Worse
Then the news hit that a new virus was spreading and a pandemic was born. The virus came out of China and conspiracy theories spread like wildfire. We all hunkered down, bought masks and learned about something called social distancing. As I look back upon this time, I now realize that the fear was worse than the virus. I found this Covid timeline published by the CDC. I think it needs to be updated with some of the data that is now coming out about earlier spread.
Those who have high anxiety and seek to control things went into complete lockdown mode. I experienced loss but not a significant loss in income. My cortisol levels must have been off the charts. Then the schools sent the kids home and I wrote about my experience here.
Speculation and The Media
The year is now 2024 and I’ve updated my original post. During my research on the internet, I have stumbled upon so many medical articles and warnings of a new virus out of Wuhan. My stomach clenched, my chest got tight and I remembered all of the information that came at us in 2020. All of this information that really wasn’t useful but just laced with impending doom. Did Covid hit earlier in 2019? Probably. However, the fear and divisiveness hit us all in 2020. I’m not sure which was worse.
Leave a Reply