What follows might be the longest story I’ve posted. All I did was copy-and-paste excerpts of people who think they had “early Covid.” My purpose is to provide “anecdotal evidence” that, no doubt,  millions of people think they had Covid before Covid was supposed to have existed in their communities.

(I compare the volume of these anecdotes to similar anecdotes of people who suspect they experienced an adverse event(s) from the Covid “vaccines” or know someone they think died after receiving these shots).

I  don’t believe every one of these people had early Covid. However, if 10 or 20 percent of these posters did have Covid, the virus that causes these symptoms had obviously reached every part of the globe by February 2020. In my opinion, if scientists and researchers see enough similar “anecdotes,  such testimonials should be given significant weight.

Key Take-Aways …

If readers skim this text, they might pick-up on some of the recurring themes I noticed. For example:

• The large number of people who report their illness was unlike previous flu or cold bugs they’d experienced in their lives.

• The large number of citizen correspondents who report that many people in their towns or work-places (or several people in their households) experienced the same symptoms they did at the same time.

• Most possible cases date from October 2019 (but some are even earlier). Not surprisingly (to me), many seem to have been in the traditional “cold and flu” months between November 2019 and February 2020.

• Case anecdotes published below come from numerous countries and every region of America, suggesting “virus spread” was not “isolated” or limited.

• Many posters report they were never sick with Covid or anything else after their presumed bouts with early Covid, which possibly suggests they had acquired natural immunity.

Previous early spread evidence …

To support my “early spread” hypothesis, I’ve previously presented copious evidence from positive antibody-results (here and here) and articles showing that outbreaks of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) in the fall and winter of 2019-2020 were “severe” and “widespread” across the United States (here, here and here). 

I note again that early cases of Covid can NOT be “confirmed” by PCR tests as virtually nobody in the world could get such a test before March 2020. (In my opinion, this was by design). Also, antibody tests were unavailable for most people until late April or early May 2020. Also, most people who had been sick with Covid symptoms in the winter of 2019-2020 never got an antibody test.

I’d previously published another very long story that gave in-depth details of 104 Americans who contacted me after one of my early-spread stories was picked up by Citizen Free Press. In my opinion, this is one of the more fascinating and compelling stories I’ve published on my Substack. From that story, I found at least seven or eight people who also say they later tested positive for antibodies.

In this piece, four or five more people make the same claim (that they later tested positive for Covid antibodies).

Finally, I decided to cut off my article when it approached 14,000 words. That is, I could have printed excerpts from hundreds of more people and made this story 28,000 words.

Notes: These excerpts come from personal emails, from Reader Comments to my site and myriad other Internet sites (including The New York Times, YouTube, other Substack sites, Facebook before I was banned, etc.) I performed only very minor editing. Where I could, I provided sources identifying where these testimonials came from … but not always (as I didn’t always save this information).

The names, where listed, are the users’ “Posting handles” or their real names. Several posts were from doctors and nurses.

I intentionally made this article long to make my point it’s not difficult to find people who think they had early Covid. 

My main conclusion is that if so many people had already contracted this virus by March 1, 2020 (and did not die), this virus cannot be “deadly.” This point made, readers will see several examples where Internet posters report family members and friends they think did die from Covid before March 1, 2020.

I’d be surprised if any other journalist in the world has saved so many “early spread” anecdotes. Subscriptions or Ko-Fi tips support this original and, I think, important research and are greatly appreciated.

Let the anecdotes begin …

Dr. Victoria Jakel (email to me):  I am a family physician in a little town called Norway, Michigan (pop. 2500) in the beautiful Upper Peninsula.

I can tell you that I started seeing symptomatic patients (quite a few of them) as early as the beginning of November, 2019, possibly a week or two earlier. Not one of them tested positive for influenza. I checked a few for RSV and they were negative for that as well.  By January, 2020 I stopped testing for anything as it was clear that the tests were not going to be helpful. I treated almost all of them as if they did have the flu. I usually prescribe an old-school remedy called amantadine, rather than Tamiflu which is not effective and far more expensive …

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Another email (name not provided because I haven’t gotten permission):

Bill, I had symptoms of COVID in January, 2020. Sicker than a dog for 3-4 days with what was very similar to influenza. I did not go to my doc as I knew my test would be negative. (I am a physician myself and every one of my similarly affected patients had tested negative for influenza A and B over the preceding 3 months.) I knew I had caught it from one of them. So I took my own advice, stayed home, took DayQuil and NyQuil, Tylenol, drank plenty of clear liquids and ate chicken soup. Within 5 days I felt like a million bucks and was back to work.

I waited until my annual physical 23 months later (I skipped my physical in December of 2020 because they wouldn’t let me in without a mask) to bring this up with my own doc and ask for an antibody test. I’m not vaccinated for many reasons, first and foremost because I had a strong suspicion that I was already immune. My doc thought I was nuts but he ordered the test anyway. It was positive, 23 months after the fact. He never said a word about it, or admitted that I might have been right about natural immunity. Just like he never admitted I might be right about the jab not being safe or effective even though he contracted COVID himself after being “vaccinated” and boosted, and after my “vaccinated” brother dropped dead a couple of weeks after his 2nd jab.

I would look for a different doctor but there aren’t any around here who understand what has been going on for the past 3+ years.

This person sent me an email and requested anonymity … 

Note: The reader was a part of a group from Detroit that attended a conference hosted by Stanford University in October 2019 …

… “Shortly after we returned- we ALL got sick- we could not figure it out.  We actually laughed at how our symptoms all matched and assumed we picked something up that week/traveling.  We kept teasing 'who was patient zero' but we couldn't shake it and assumed since we were working together we were cycling the same 'cold' back and forth.”

I'll speak to my own experience/symptoms only next, as I've never discussed this with the others who have moved on to new roles/companies and I am not in contact with them...but in Oct-Nov of 2019, I was extremely fatigued, feverish, body chills and coughing- deep coughing constantly. 

The pain was unbearable- and worse at night when I laid down - could not sleep. It was always worse too when I drove … to work- the coughing would get so extreme I'd have to pull over and stand up.  One time I pulled over and coughed so hard I bruised my ribs and coughed up a little bile/blood (I couldn't eat there was simply nothing in my stomach).  I was miserable and very scared; I've never been that sick in my life- I've been blessed with good health.  

Work finally sent me home to see a doctor - but since the fever had passed and my blood work was clear- as was the ENT check - not a common cold or bronchitis, they didn't give me anything.  I went back twice- insisting something was wrong.  They humored me because the cough was deep, and I was so miserable and so I did have two lung x-rays in the space of a month.  They were worried about pneumonia and other similar things  - but lungs were clear/so were x-rays.  The official note on my last appointment record with the x-ray is 'unknown virus' and I was told it would play out in time, encouraged to rest and drink lots of warm fluids.

It took me until the end of Nov or early Dec-  to feel more normal- and I was very fatigued and mentally 'fuzzy.'  

***

Ryan Sweet (from email) …. I’m in Boise Idaho, and became very ill in mid-January 2020.  I kept records and can be more precise with some research.  That lasted about 4-6 weeks of extreme lethargy, tiredness, headaches, soreness, sore throat, persistent coughing, and many other symptoms.  I recall about 10 symptoms.  I am generally very healthy and rarely sick.  This was not any typical flu. The extreme symptoms and duration were very different and difficult. 

My healthy dog was also mysteriously so lethargic one day during this period I thought she was dying.  She recovered in about a day.  

I never took the vaccine, but in December 2020 during my annual medical physical my doctor ordered blood labs.  I was positive for the covid virus, proving I had it in January 2020.

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Laura Wesselman (from email): I’m a registered critical care nurse at TCMC in Oceanside, Ca.  In fall of 2019 my brother travelled to NYC for the World Series.  He became very ill, returned home to Carlsbad, Ca.  Very sick, went to urgent care and tested for influenza A and B.  Spent three weeks in bed while I cared for him.

(One) patient I cared for in November developed ARDS and was intubated and placed in a Roto-Prone.  Every test was negative.  He managed to survive. 

I’m convinced both cases were Covid-19.  Also of note, our ICU was packed with Mexican nationals, all but two of whom died.  Why is no one talking about this very unfortunate statistic?  Very suspicious.

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From my Substack’s Reader Comments, Mascot: My high schooler came home one day about a week before Thanksgiving 2019 saying everyone at school were not feeling well and sure enough we both came down with something nasty nasty nasty the Monday before the holiday. Her symptoms were way less intense than mine. Went to the doc twice, they tossed useless meds at me. Didn't know what it was. I had the most horrific dry cough imaginable, fever for a few days, malaise and exhaustion for weeks. My chest felt like it was gonna burst and my ribs hurt from the barking persistent cough. I know this was Covid. We all do. Haven't been sick since I recovered to normal around January 2020.

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Champ W. Webb (from email): I … thought I would let you know about my experience with what I'm convinced was Covid 19 the week before Christmas 2019. I live in Paducah, Kentucky.

Shane's description (from another one of my early-spread articles) is pretty much dead-on to what I experienced (although my dogs didn’t talk to me) but I did have a 104 temp and very intense and surreal fever dreams.  I would wake up sweating and shaking with chills.  I have had the flu only once in my life, back in Feb of 1986. I had never felt that way in my 30 years of life ( in fact, I thought I might have poisoned myself with paint and lacquer fumes - I was remodeling a house at the time)  but a friend said you probably have the flu .. I tell you this only because what I felt in 2019 was so much more intense.  

I'm not a go-to-the-doctor type guy … so naturally I didn't go in Dec. of 19, only after the 104 temp reading did I take some Advil or something  and it brought down the temp and I eventually got well.   And I just chalked it up as my 2nd case of the flu until people around me started testing positive for Covid and  talking about their symptoms.   

I did not have an antibody test … but let me assure you I had something that I had never had before and it "left marks” …My sense of smell is all but gone only a few things still smell the same and I still sometime have that deep but dry unproductive cough for a few minutes especially in the morning but I feel fine in all other ways …  

Gregory Hood (via email) … My wife and I live in NE Florida in a very small town approximately halfway between Gainesville and St. Augustine.  About midway or just after of December, 2019, my wife began showing signs of catching something akin to the common cold, but it wouldn't go away.  It became progressively worse, flu-like even, but possibly bronchitis.  

The last week of December, she fell extremely ill.  After 3 days of her basically being comatose and me hearing her breathing becoming very labored and obstructed by phlegm, I took her to the ER.  They could not, or would not, tell us what it was but stated it was not anything common as we had thought.  They loaded her up with antibiotics, steroid, and anti-inflammatory medicines but told her it would take quite awhile for her to get over it.  They were correct and it was into February before she felt normal again, but it stands out that though they "didn't know" what it was, they knew it would be a long recovery!

Fast forward to March, 2020 when suddenly we are bombarded from everywhere with info on Covid.  … We quickly concluded she’d already had it before we even knew what it was because the onset, symptoms, etc. all matched.  Additionally, as she is big into social media, she soon found out that many people in our area, but specifically neighbors on our street, had also had this mysterious illness about the same time or before as she.  We knew right then that a huge cover-up was taking place and continued with our massive research.

It just so happens that our next door neighbor has very strong ties to China and had last visited there earlier in 2019.  We don't think it was a coincidence that soon after her return, practically everyone on our street and in the surrounding neighborhood came down with Covid.  …As we never took an antibody test, I cannot back this up with medical proof.  But we know what we know nonetheless.

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From Reader Comment at my Substack:  From first hand experience I can tell you that my husband and I had Covid in May, 2019. That's why I questioned the 'party line' from the beginning. I knew that their information was inaccurate. I'm 77 years old and that is the sickest I've ever been in my long life. I lost my sense of smell for over 18 months! I went to a Nose specialist in November of 2019. His exact words. "I've treated 6 other people who experienced a bad flu episode that have lost their taste and smell.“ I later started putting two and two together. Took an antibody test and it showed I had the antibodies. This entire Corona has been a fecal show …

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Reader from Cape Town South Africa (via email): Whilst I know this is anecdotal, I'd like to share with you my own experience of the virus. It afflicted me, my husband and both my siblings on three continents at more or less the same time:  early September through to December 2019. 

My older brother, P, aged 68 at the time, resident in Perth, Australia, together with his wife aged 63 and two friends of similar ages and residents of Sydney, flew to New Zealand in Aug/Sept 2019 to house-sit for a month. A week after arriving, all four caught the virus during their remaining time there. They described it as "a flu", the likes of which they had "never experienced before". All the symptoms they described matched the subsequent check-list for cov19. 

… Not long after that, perhaps a month, my younger brother, M, aged 63 at the time and a resident of Spain, was reduced to bed with a "worst ever dose" as he called it, of "flu". Same course of action followed, and when we chatted afterwards, he laughed and called it the "back-to-front" flu because the dry cough and fever came first, before the sinusitis and fever. All the symptoms he described matched the subsequent check-list for cov19. 

Shortly after that, in early October, my husband, aged 74, who was finishing up a project in Spain, took to his bed for a few days ... unusually. He described it as a "mother-of-a-dose" of flu. He, too, self-medicated and his symptoms also matched the subsequent check-list for cov19. He recovered and returned home to South Africa in mid-November. 

Then I finally caught the "lurgy", as we were calling it in-family, at the close of December 2019;  I was 66. Again, all the symptoms matched. I was in bed for four days, self-medicated, and two weeks later was over the worst of it. It was a "flu" to remember, all right …

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Molly Fagan (via email):  A co-worker of mine was in hospital twice in later summer 2019 in Phoenix AZ with an undefined illness with pneumonia like symptoms but not specifically pneumonia. The physicians had no idea what was wrong or how to correctly treat it. He did recover with a few months and eventually believed it was COVID. The first week of Dec 2019 I traveled from my home city Las Vegas NV to Austin TX via plane and became very sick with the worst chest type illness I ever experienced which I later believed was COVID. It went away and came back a few weeks later. My lung capacity was about 20% what it normally was. After the third week, I took a Z Pack and Prednisone I had at home and eventually it went away; but was at least 8 weeks before my lungs were 100% again.

I traveled weekly all through Covid by plane for work and was never sick and have not been sick again since Dec 2019 and no vax.

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Reader (via email): I was certain I had Covid in early October of 2019.  We took a Mediterranean vacation leaving September 29, 2019 flying to Porto Portugal then on to Barcelona Spain October 3, 2019, where we embarked on a cruise with ports a call in France ending in Italy.  

On October 5th I became ill with tight sore throat ,uncontrollable cough, fever with no energy and body aches.  I am rarely sick with no health issues and never was unable to get out of bed. I did not eat or get out of bed for two days and obtained cough syrup from the ship's medical aid.   Feeling bad about leaving my husband to eat alone, I mustered the strength to go to dinner with him on the ship.  I COULD NOT TASTE ANYTHING!  It was so odd and I made comment to my husband. 

We arrived back in the states on October 13, 2019, still coughing.  After the news started to report the symptoms of Covid,in the upcoming months in 2020, I was certain I had had it.  I did not take an antibody test … 

… I know you are looking for verifiable information, but it appears possible that  I could have been one of the earliest infected.  The cruise line went out of business, but it would have been interesting to see how many went to medical aid for similar symptoms. 

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Roland Brown (via email): My wife and I were taking our honeymoon in early September, 2019 which. centered on the Italian Grand Prix in a suburb of Milan on 9/8/2019. We flew from Charlotte to Rome. After Venice I am sure that I had Covid, though obviously there was no name for it. All I could do is tell my wife that it was neither a cold, nor the flu yet I was unable to participate in some of our planned tourism due to bed rest. My wife did not appear symptomatic or in any way affected. I lost my sense of smell during the acute part of my illness, among other symptoms.

…. Many months later when the first publicly available antibody tests arrived I paid almost $200 to Quest Diagnostics and the test came back negative. To this day I wonder whether it was because they were testing for a  different antibody or whether mine had dissipated or whether they were giving false negatives to suit a alternative narrative …

My comment: In other articles I’ve presented copious evidence that officials intentionally limited access to antibody tests (to reduce evidence of early spread). This testimonial shows me another way officials might have achieved this goal - they charged $200 for some people who wanted to get an early antibody tests. Question: How many people would shell out $200 for such a test?

Rock Knute from my Reader Comments section: 

I was playing in a golf tournament at Black Horse near Monterey in California, November 6,7 and 8th in 2019. I met my brothers at Pebble Beach on the 9th and came home 3 days later. By the middle of the following week, I had such a terrible dry cough that while I was at work, if it flared up I would walk out of our staging room at United Airlines because I couldn’t stop coughing for minutes on end. It made my ribs ache. I also lost my sense of smell totally and my sense of taste in a large measure. I had a dull headache that would never respond to any pain medication, not even my migraine medication.

The thing I actually thought was the weirdest was when I would literally be winded walking up a very short flight of stairs. Odd for me because I work out religiously, am 5’ 9” and have maintained my high school weight of 165 lbs. I was 63 years old at the time have no problems walking any golf course and carrying my own bag. I even walked and carried at notoriously hilly Chambers Bay two years ago.

I never went to the doctor for treatment but mentioned it to him in December when I went for my annual physical.… I had every symptom of covid except the feeling of weight on my chest which many people seemed to have had. My sense of smell and sense of taste is to this day way below par.

I did have a blood test the following year in January 2021 and tested positive for antibodies. My wife is a veteran nurse of 22 years and never presented with symptoms but her blood tested even more robustly for antibodies. She worked many hours overtime filling in for many nurses afraid to come to work during covid. By the way, neither of us have taken the (vaccine).

Cathleen Manny - My son-in-law was extremely ill in January 2020 for 6-8 weeks. Elevated temp, relentless cough, said he couldn’t breathe unless he laid on his stomach. His wife, my daughter, is a RN in an Arizona hospital. She got mildly ill at the time. We now always say that we’re so glad he got ill before anyone knew about C19, otherwise if it was a month or two later, he may gone into hospital and gotten put on a ventilator etc. and might have died (been killed by the awful treatment protocols). Oh, and also when folks first started hearing of Covid19 in Feb/March 2020, everyone I knew with young children noted their kids had “some sort of weird flu” during Nov/Dec 2019.

Michell - Same thing happened in my office around Christmas 2019. I didn’t get whatever it was but my co-workers all said it was like the worst flu they’d ever had.

P. Reay: I concur. Two of my co-workers were quite ill in Nov-Dec 2019. Unusually long-lasting symptoms, notably in their chests and lungs; different from a normal flu or cold, they averred. Then the Covid-mania hit shortly after.

Reader Comment From Justin Hart’s website

…Doctor confirms early spread

Absolutely agree and here’s why. I began seeing patients in my office around the end of October-beginning of November of 2019 with symptoms of what we now call COVID-19. All tested negative for influenza A and B, all negative for RSV. Not sure what it was at the time other than some kind of respiratory viral infection (which I named the “mystery virus”).

I treated patients with either nothing or if they insisted on being treated (which many did) I gave them a combination of amantadine and a macrolide (either erythromycin or azithromycin) which is an old school treatment for influenza and much cheaper than Tamiflu. They all recovered, some faster than others. None of them went to the hospital. No one died.

Nobody started “dying of COVID” until Fauci, Birx, et al, along with the talking heads on TV began TELLING them they were going to die unless they ran to the hospital when they became sick, scaring the hell out of them. The “death counter” in the corner of the TV screen emphasized that nicely.

At the same time the protocols that came out started off with telling the ER docs to send people home with no treatment until they returned with severe hypoxia. They were explicitly told NOT to use steroids (prednisone or SoluMedrol) for wheezing/coughing/difficulty breathing, which was completely baffling to me because steroids have always been the go-to medication to treat and control breathing difficulty caused by inflammation of any kind. This is when I knew for certain that the government was up to something nefarious. And it was also when people began to be put on the new protocols (ventilator/Remdesivir/morphine) and dying.

It’s also when I started telling my patients to stay as far away from the ER/hospital as they possibly could. I was able to prescribe HCQ for some and Ivermectin (once I became aware of it) for a few others although that was difficult and eventually became impossible since most pharmacies refused to fill those prescriptions, and 1 pharmacist was nice enough to turn me in to the state licensing board.

In any event, I believe that the virus itself is almost identical to the flu and that the only folks who actually died from it (and not from the protocols) were the frail elderly and those with extremely compromised immune systems. The addition of the Spike Protein was to cause on-going and long term damage to the recipient (turbo cancers, clots, etc) which continue to add to the death toll.

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Reader comment after my school closing article: My wife and I had a nasty dose of what I’m convinced was COVID in December 2019. Believe I caught it from a friend who had it in late November 2019. I was so ill I thought I might need to go to the ER/A&E. It was like no flu I had ever had .. it smelt and tasted completely different to flu. It took me 3 months to recover, lost my voice completely for weeks and it was affected permanently (definitely not flu).

In Feb 2019 a (colleague) in Chicago went down with what was supposedly flu but deteriorated after a couple of weeks. She ended up on a ventilator, but did eventually recover and returned to work after 2 months. Her symptoms were classic Covid with the glassy lesions in her lungs. I think this was about the time of the ‘crackly lung’ syndrome thing which was killing young vape users (supposedly) .. a story that seemed to go into a memory hole. All very odd ..

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Reader Comments to ‘Bartram’s Folly’ Substack site …

(Note: This is an interesting article!)

Lucy Ivimy: I got it Boxing Day 2019 in rural Ceredigion (in UK). Anecdotes say half of Lampeter and Tregaron also got it over Christmas and that a bunch of Chinese students from Wuhan arrived at Lampeter College in November 2019.

Barekick’s comment: Anecdotally, my partner and I in London both had a flu-like illness in late Oct/early Nov ’19. It was notable for me as the worst cold/flu I’d had since the swine flu in 2019 (although not as bad). My partner ended up with an autoimmune reaction as she started to recover, with her body breaking out in a weird bumpy rash which took a while to clear completely (she was prescribed steroids). We were both not sick again until January 2022 when we got omicron, despite repeated exposures to prior cover strains over the past two years. Many other people I know in London also recall bad flus in the 4-5 months before March 2020.

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Alex Starling - Agree. Me too, as they say. Loads of chest infections and pneumonia then in otherwise healthy dads in our social group. I had full-on shakes and fever - almost delirium after one meeting - back in September 2019. The whole episode lasted for weeks - GP told me there were “lots of nasty viruses around at the time.” Ended up getting referred for full lung function tests (scans/bloos etc) - consultant confirmed I “had something” but had shaken it off.

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Unacceptable Fringe Minority: My family had the worst Christmas 2019 after my eldest daughter came home from University with a streaming flu. We spent 2 weeks coughing and being unable to sleep - I remember at the time that the cough was odd because there seemed to be no reason for it . . . I was necking Beechams just to get to sleep. The kicker - my daughter is in a department that is majority Chinese overseas students.

Vivian Evans: It’s great to have your statistical analysis to confirm that covid was here in Nov/Dec 2019. I've had too many personal reports from England and Wales of people having had the worst flu they ever had in December 2019 and early January 2020, before we've even heard of that 'new' disease, myself included. And surely there must have been at least some who were, in covid-parlance, ‘asymptomatic'?

Off topic, but I think this is a very interesting theory by this poster …

Ronald Carlin: Is it not an outside possibility that the exponential epidemic phase of Covid began somewhere other than Wuhan, but the state-of-the-art technology at the Wuhan Institute of Technology made it one of the few labs capable of detecting it, thus saddling them with the suspicion it leaked from that lab?

If it started somewhere else (Seattle comes to mind), then the lab leak theory is bullshit. People talk about the coincidence that Covid appeared next to a BSL4 lab, but maybe it wasn’t such a coincidence; maybe it appeared there first because they had the technology to DETECT it, rather than CREATE it.

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Didn’t save name or Internet site: I’m still pretty sure I had the virus in January 2020. I was not particularly ill, but the dry cough lasted for three or four weeks. Other than that it was an average heavy cold. I felt rough but not enough to stop doing normal activities.

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It passed through Laos in the first week of Sept 19.

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Ravin’ Mad: I, like many colleagues I work with, had an unusual cold in November 2019, which was mild but we all lost our sense of taste. Never had that symptom before or since.

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Another poster at the above-cited Substack: Your town wouldn't be Shrewsbury would it? If so my wife works in that school and like you I had all the symptoms but a bit later at Christmas in 2019. I recovered quite quickly from the worst of the symptoms but it left me sub par for around 4 to 6 weeks and at the time I remember saying it was the worst cold/flu I could remember. Ditto no masks or jabs but I think we all had Omicron this Christmas, same lingering cough but mild compared to the 2019 version.

Malvern: … Also, as reporting gathered pace in Feb/March 2020, many of my customers commented that they were convinced they’d already had it around Christmas 2019.

Newt2u: Someone else I know in the same circle actually ended up in hospital that December with pneumonia.

Tish: I’m also in Shropshire, elder age group, and I’m pretty sure I had the virus in Feb 2020. It was the weirdest set of symptoms I’ve ever experienced, and the endless dry coughing was horrible. Interestingly, my other half, didn’t catch a shred of it.

N&S: I am 100% convinced that I contracted the virus in November 2019. In my town there is a large community of Chinese school pupils coming and going from a well-known public school for holidays back home in China. I had every single one of the symptoms, as well as a horrible feeling I was on the verge of pneumonia. I got over it. Obviously. Needless to say, I haven’t had any fear of reinfection throughout the past couple of years. I have never worn a pointless mask or observed social distancing to much of a degree, despite working in a customer-facing retail position. Unjabbed too. Obviously.

Reader Comments after Fox News ran an article on Belleville Mayor Michael Melham’s positive antibody test. 

Mayor Melham said he got sick in mid-November 2019 at a conference in Atlantic City. I have written extensively about his likely/possible early case. This first comment was one of the very few people who supported the mayor and thought he might have really had Covid. Note what happened to this poster’s father!

Didn’t save name: I actually know Mike - he's a very nice guy.  I do not believe he has any nefarious plot behind his comments.  He genuinely believes he had something that was not the flu.  My father also works in close proximity to him.  My father developed pneumonia from his illness in December.  Does it mean it was COVID?  No - but may be possible.

But a few Fox News readers offered their own early-spread testimonials …

Where I work as a nurse, we had a lot of people come in Dec/Jan/Feb with severe flu like symptoms.  Flu (and strep) were all negative and we just diagnosed them with bronchitis, URI's etc.    Now I'm thinking they could of had Covid 19.  These people were pretty damn sick and it lasted for weeks for some of them.  I truly believe it was here a lot sooner than anyone thinks.

Pandemics take time to spin up, the virus was likely already in most major cities long before it hit critical mass.

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My two sisters in NJ both had a horrendous respiratory bug that both said was like nothing they had before. One in December and one in January. Both live an hour away from Atlantic City - in different towns. They have both been saying for weeks they believe they had COVID and are seeking a test to see if they did. A lot of other people are also saying they had a bad respiratory illness and tested negative for flu. … Italy had cases in 2019 too.

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My personal physician visited India in the fall and came home with severe flu-like symptoms.  He was treated at Mayo Clinic, and they were stumped by his symptoms.  He died in early December.  Was it COVID-19?  I believe it was.

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In Feb during one week 18 of out 32 in my office became sick with flu-like symptoms. Three had to go to hospital they were so bad. Most of us were fine in about three days. Comparing symptoms, it sounded more like Corona than the regular flu, but people tell me I'm nuts. A couple weeks later is when our state (WA) started to get hit hard with COVID. I still think we had the virus. It definitely (was) not the "normal" flu like I've had before.

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…. I was infected with this in December in of all places Oklahoma.  Stewardess who flew to China on a regular basis had what seemed to be really bad bronchitis and FLU symptoms but the FLU tests were negative.  Then everyone got it.

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Was talking to my doctor he told me back in late November & December patients were coming into his office with sure signs of the flu but were almost all coming up negative leaving him to believe the Cov-19 was been around since then.

YouTube Reader Comments after a short interview

with Mayor Melham was published

In early December I was sick where I had a fever for one day, the chills for a couple of days, I lost taste and smell for three days and had a dry cough for about a month.  Flu medicine wouldn't relieve any of the symptoms.  As time progressed the cough got better but for the entire month of December and about two weeks in January walking from my office to my vehicle was a shore, heck walking from one side of my office to the other made be run out of breath.  

During this time I got my wife sick and not knowing how contagious or what we really had we made various visits to family.  One in December when we just had a cough we went to visit my wife's nieces new born twins.  A week and a half later they are in the hospital for two days with pneumonia.  Later we went to visit my family for New Years where I still had a slight cough.  We stayed a week with my family and a week after we returned home my niece was in the hospital with wheezing in her lungs, needing oxygen with pneumonia.  After my niece got sick my sister got sick with "bronchitis" then my step father got sick with the same symptoms I had.  Lastly, my mother got sick with the same symptoms I had in December.

I told my sister of my suspicions including that a lot of my co-workers had gotten sick from December to February with the same or similar symptoms.  … She decided to go get the antibody test and my niece came back positive for the antibodies.  My sister came back negative but she said that the test has a 13% false negatives and that she might have been a false negative.  The only time my niece was sick was after I infected her.  She has not been sick since and for the last two months she has been on strict lock down. Now she could have gotten the virus between January and March, but I doubt it.  Plus if she did get the virus somebody in my family would have gotten sick or so I believe.

These are just too many coincidences to think that it wasn't corona.

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Malvin Abbott (same YouTube Comment section): My mother lived in Memphis,TN She was 48yo with a few pre-existing conditions. She went into the hospital Nov. 7 and was dead by Nov. 30. Every single one of her symptoms were the same things that people with Covid suffer from. They tried a number of different medications and treatments to no avail. Within the weeks she was in the hospital her lungs went from healthy to beyond scarred within that time. She was placed on a breathing machine a week before she passed and turned on her stomach, like people with cover are being done.

After she passed I stayed to watch the nurses undo and take out/off everything and when they pulled the tube out of her lungs there was so much scare tissue on it a child could see something was terribly wrong. On her death certificate they wrote she passed of pulmonary fibrosis and septic shock - the same thing they were putting on people’s death certificates when this all started.

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My whole family got sick at Thanksgiving and my grandmother subsequently died of an unidentifiable virus (sent to cdc) on dec 7th.

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By the end of November 2019, I got sick. The worst I ever felt. I had low body aches then it got worse, a fever, a horrible cough, a soar throat, my nose was congestion bad, it would hurt to breath sometimes, and I would get very tired. I just thought I had another respiratory infection. But the body aches and the fever were worse than respiratory infection I had of March of 2019. I took NyQuil. It helped somewhat. I finally went to see my doctor. He tested me for the flu and strep. Both came back negative. The doctor told me it’s a virus he is not familiar with. The doctor Diagnosed me with Respiratory infection. But I believe I did have the coronavirus. Those two weeks were the worst I ever felt.

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I was sick in DEC 2019 and it was something different than a regular flu and everyone was catching it and saying the same thing.

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Ms. MollyGosh: A friend of mine (late 30s) was rushed to ICU November 2019 out of the blue with difficulty breathing and a terrible cough. They never ended up in hospital before that...they were in ICU for over one week. The doctors didn't know what it was.

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Christine Sutherland: I was very sick in November of 2019. Like you, I’m not one to get fevers. I had a really high fever and had to sleep sitting up. This lasted about a month. After feeling better - - although still coughing - I went to a party with my cousin. After hanging out with me - two weeks later she died of what doctors said was pneumonia. I need to take the antibody test as well.

More, more, more …

GabeReal - I know several people in my small circle of family/friends that came down with a very bad “flu” in the winter of 2019/2020, before Covid supposedly arrived here. My brother said he almost felt like he was gonna die. In retrospect many of them think it might have been Covid …

Vulkan - Me and sister suspect that she had Covid in December 2019. She was rough for 2 weeks and it was only as the Covid stuff built up that we realised what it was.

Troll Hunter - My cousin's daughter in Ft. Lupton, CO came down with a sudden and mysterious case of pneumonia after she got sick with a high fever and cough. She went for x-rays and her lungs were full of fluid. That was in October, 2019, after having made a trip out to see Disneyland in CA, you know how many ppl go there every day. Then one of my close friends came down with "a weird cough and a fever" later in October, and started feeling reeeaally b-a-d. She went in and found out that she was in stage 2 renal failure and barely escaped having to go through dialysis (!). Her case was the topic of discussion in the department of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente for Northern California-- where another friend is the head of that department … Gina was looking at it under the microscope every day. Her observation?

The virus mutates too fast to be able to make any kind of "vaccine" to stop it. Didn't we already KNOW THAT about common cold viruses, the prototype of which was built upon to create this chimera?

Zero Hedge readers share their comments …

None the rich(t)er (on Zero Hedge): Well even here in The Rifle River Region it started going around earlier and the local school was closed and I myself dealt with organ injury and had to leave my outside job …

Krink26 (Zero Hedge):  I had it twice. Once before it even made the news in October 19. Same exact symptoms as the second time. Where was I the weekend before I caught it the first time? Great Lakes Naval Base - probably caught it from somebody that participated in the military games in Wuhan earlier in the month.

Ouyaburp (Zero Hedge): There were stories of a weird flu that was going around as early as September of 2019 in this area of Texas which means it was probably in the population a couple of months before that.  My question is how the Hell did it get from China to here that damned fast with out someone actively spreading it?

It wouldn't respond to the usual treatments but eventually left you alone.  People didn't start dying until the CDC put out their guidelines for Remdesivir and ventilators and forbid anyone from getting Ivermectin or HCQ.  

Paula Treides (Zero Hedge): I was working in an urgent care clinic at the time. Normally during flu season, which is when this started, our clinic would see 40 to 60 or more patients per day. In any given week a handful of these would be really sick, and you know the look- robe or jammies obviously worn several days, hair matted and smelly from not having showered in days, clutching a mixing bowl to throw up in, actively vomiting or coughing, shivering from fever, the works. All the time. Until the plandemic, when suddenly no one- NO ONE!- coming in, and I mean like single digits per day. 

Zorch (Zero Hedge): More on the nature of the symptoms as the poster didn’t cite when he was sick …I had a similar experience to Tagger's and I'd say "You'll know it when you get it."   It was like the weirdest cold I've ever had.  All food tasted like s..t for weeks, I had constant weird dreams.   Never had either of those symptoms before.   If you go down the list of 20 or so COVID symptoms, I had every single one except diarrhea.   And it took a month to be really over it. 

Old Ladybug (Zero Hedge): My husband was disabled with COPD and stable, working part time.  In October 2019, he went down from feeling fine to death's door in 1 hour.  We got him in the hospital barely alive and it became a guessing game what happened. After a month, they were going to send him home to die (Medicaid) but by a guardian angel I ran into his doctor and told him his patient was working at a Catholic school and walking to the store every day.  Doc went grey faced with shock and sent him up to another floor for more tests and better help.  After physical therapy he came home in January and lived another year.

I had it as well...with violent emesis all night and a fever, waking up feeling well. His real doctor, who had refused the hospital agreement and couldn't treat in hospital, said  "The hospitals are going insane...it's about money.  If you need a breathing treatment call me, we'll go to the office."   He was a lay Jesuit with a brother Jesuit in Georgetown and his patients were mostly medicaid and poor.

Sky Pie (Zero Hedge):  Re the symptoms … Covid was and is 'real'. I had it, and there was nothing 'ordinary' about it. Knocked me on my ass for 9 days. What I had didn't feel like flu or any other bug I'd ever caught in my 6 plus decades on this rock …

Cross Cat (Zero Hedge): … If you like, I can give you a blow by blow account of my symptoms in Dec’19 which (as a retired GP) I could not fathom at the time. At one point, I thought I had multiple small pulmonary emboli but couldn’t square that with a viral illness. At another I thought “oh, this must be what it’s like for people with chronic fatigue whose mitochondria aren’t functioning properly’. When, after 4 weeks, my husband and I started to recover I remember saying to him “we can’t just tell people we’ve had a bad cold ( see - my instinct at the time was that it was a cold type virus) as we won’t get enough sympathy, we’ll have to tell people we’ve had the flu!”

Several more comments from my Substack readers …

PonyBoy (my Substack):  I believe in early spread Bill, as my wife and I came down with something in December 2019 that was so powerful that while visiting an old friend we decided to have lunch at a nearby restaurant and after ordering our food, once the food came I couldn't eat it.

The sickness then forced me to return to our hotel at which time I was unable to leave the bed until the next morning when my wife drove home.I then spent the next 2 days in bed before gaining enough strength to eat anything. We both survived it that time.

Jim (my Substack):  Same thing where I live. November-December 2019 bunch of people I know were down for the count with some sort of flu or cold. Just arbitrarily picking a day to lock down the country i think it was March 15 or whatever always seemed off to me. It’s why I never bought into any of it since day one. Your theory seems the most plausible to me. Especially since in early February they had the Super Bowl in Miami, close to my hometown. A huge international event, and there was no massive outbreak of anything, next thing you know they’re locking (everything) down. None of it ever added up.

Tired Citizen (My Substack): I agree in that it started much earlier. Late Fall 2019, I came down with something upper respiratory that I have never had before or since. Completely and badly congested, feeling horrible, no energy, but no fever. I’ve had bronchitis many times living in eastern NC and occasionally a cold and once or twice the flu. What I had then was nothing I had ever experienced before.

To this day, I have continual stuffy nose that no spray by RX can touch except one over the counter because it is like my sinuses are stuck shut (I lived over 50 years with never an allergy), sense of smell almost completely gone as well as taste greatly affected. I firmly believe it was COVID.

The King (my Substack):  My first Covid in Jan 2020 was unlike any illness I had every had before, also.

Bonnie Haralson (my Substack): I work with a Chiropractor (in Washington state) who uses Contact Reflex Analysis (muscle testing using Chinese meridians) to find and diagnose problems in the body. Late in 2019, we had an avalanche of "flu" cases. One of her tools is Alka-Seltzer mixed in 7-Up or other clear carbonated beverage. The object of using this remedy is to deactivate viruses by changing the pH of the body. It wasn't until March, 2020 that it had a name, but whatever we were seeing was around long before the gov't acknowledged it!

Whiskeys (from my Substack) …. Told a few friends and clients about it, but that was all. And several people were falling ill that autumn with a mystery flu. I'm pretty sure that was Covid. Whether it was seeded strategically, I don't know, but I do believe it was around well before they told us it was around.

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The King (my Substack) - I got Covid the 1st week in January 2020 when I visited NYC … My host said all their friends were sick. It was different from any illness I had ever had before.

Citizen (my Substack): I am pretty sure the health authorities knew there was a strange respiratory "virus" going around in late 2019, before Wuhan. In about Oct or Nov 2019, someone I knew went into hospital for a chesty thing and they put them straight into a separated area, wore masks and gloves and had a sign on the entry. This was not for anything major (in fact I think they were actually there for something else) and we had not seen anything like this in our hospital system previously. We thought it was very weird at the time, and a month or two later Wuhan happened.

Kathie (from my Substack): My hub, son and gal that works with me we’re all very sick in Dec 19 .. they all said worse flu ever .. I hadn’t even heard the word Covid . I agree with you .. this started long before they said .

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Janene Follmer (of Kansas, from email) - I think all of it is a definite possibility. My daughter and her husband (ages early 40's) both had a mysterious respiratory ailment in late October/early November of 2019 that was severely debilitating, caused extreme fatigue, inflamed bronchial tubes, coughing, but not much if any fever. When I caught covid months later and explained my symptoms to them, they said it was like what they already had.

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Aimline 2024 (my Substack):  I had it in Nov 2019. Started on Thanksgiving Day and was finished 5 days later. Weirdest and mildest cold I've ever had. My neighbor had it in Dec 2019/Jan 2020. Las Vegas, NV where a lot of Chinese come over to celebrate the Chinese New Year early.

Maskot (my Substack): My household had a horrible "mystery " bug in November 2019. Doctors couldn't tell us what it was and tossed useless meds at us that did less than zero to ease the symptoms. Took about a month to return to the living but the cough remained for months. We now know it was Covid.

Kim (my Substack):  I’ve also thought it was here long before March 2020. Your article makes so much sense to me. I was sick with something in January 2020 and many others I know had it in the fall (of 2019).

Elizabeth Wierzba (my Substack): …My family went to NYC in December 2019 and 2 days after we returned we all came down with a nasty case of the flu. My 10 yr old got it the worst, she has UC and JRA and is on immunosuppressants so she got a bad case. But it was just a bad case of flu. Also, in the years since we have been "exposed" to others who have Covid and have never caught it again. Unfortunately I ended up getting the vaccines because NY required them to get into restaurants and other venues and have had serious complications from them.

Dawn Key - FB message to me May 9th, 2020:

Note: Dawn was my (then) 2nd-grade daughter’s teacher in early 2020. .. I had the Flu, confirmed, for a week, was well for exactly two weeks afterwards, and the night of CHMS’s Winter Formal i began coughing out of the blue. The next day I already felt the symptoms and was sick for exactly three weeks. It was tough, especially trying to teach. I vividly remember (my daughter) Maggie being sick...she was so pitiful. I had many in my class with persistent coughs around that time.

So Jack (Dawn’s son), myself and then my husband got sick with the same symptoms ...two daughters didn’t seem to be affected by it. I will say my oldest daughter had some kind of extreme reaction to what the doctor told us appeared to be an internal reaction (meaning reaction to a virus which some kids can have). She’s 13 and never had a reaction like this before. It was terrible. Her whole body eventually became rashy and inflamed and she got infections from 

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Subscriber, name withheld at his request (via email): … All I can tell you is this is a couple from OK that had traveled to NC or SC sometime around Thanksgiving 2019. I can’t remember if they were showing symptoms while away or just when they returned. Regardless, they were very sick and originally thought it was flu.  After the outbreak in 2020 they figured they should get tested whereupon they were told they already had the antibodies. And neither had been sick since Nov 19. 

Email from one of my readers in Texas:

We are CONVINCED our daughter and several students at her school (Texas Tech University) had it in November.  Several of her friends had same symptoms. 

I was already thinking it and wondering about it but it wasn’t until I read Tracy Beanz “Could CDC data prove COVID-19 infections in November 2019?” article that I thought it could ACTUALLY be true that our daughter had it in November.

… Our daughter texted me on NOV 13 with symptoms (headache, jaw ache, neck sore, throat hurt, fever)

She felt bad enough to want to go to clinic that day. Went to Grace Clinic. She tested NEGATIVE for flu.  Dr diagnosed BRONCHITIS.  He offered a steroid shot.  S 

… She was still coughing a little when she came home NOV 25th for Thanksgiving week but was much better. 

… We had school DISTRICTS closing schools here in TX in the Fall for cleanings due to so many students out with flu/flu like illness!  Here is example article.  I remember Governor Abbott talking about it! 

I know this is just one example (with a lot of gut feeling mixed in) supporting the idea that the virus was here in the Fall of 2019. I wanted to share our story and encourage you to KEEP SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH!!

Comments from NY Times readers after

May 7, 2020 article on Covid symptoms 

Note: This is the story where “Shane from Marin, County, California” reports he had Covid in the fall of 2019 and lists two clinics where he got TWO positive antibody tests. I have written extensively about Shane’s likely case in other articles.

MA physician: I and colleagues (physicians) have said this virus was here extensively by the end of January. Many friends outside medicine raised this possibility as well— it just took some curiosity to look at travel patterns from China and Europe, viral transmissibility, and exponential growth: a single sub clinical case with R0 of two will reach 500 in a week, 15,000 by week 2 in populated areas. Then it fans out like wildfire to suburban, rural areas.

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Kelly:  I'm in the DC and have been wondering only based on my own experience of being so very very sick end of January. I travelled domestically but through an international airport. I became the sickest I've ever been in my adult life with fever, chills, aches, and it moved into my chest. It took me weeks to fully recover and go to the gym, Negative for flu. Doc said I had a "virus" but honestly felt like nothing I've ever felt before.

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Randy (from NJ): There have been dozens anecdotes in my personal circle alone of people reporting strange, flu-like symptoms all winter... even in December. Felt like the flu, but no doctor ever diagnosed a flu. Whatever, everyone thought, and then it went away. Shrugged off. None of our scientists have heard about this? And we all thoughts we were crazy? “It couldn’t have been the Coronavirus, because it didn’t get here til March.” Now this? Our scientific community NOW finds out that this thing has been around for so long? I believe the models showing higher numbers are accurate— and even may be underestimated.

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Clarice - NYC professor: I'm a NYC professor. In January and February, my attendance was horrible and usually half the students looked like they were going to fall over. Honestly, I was afraid to take papers from them for fear of catching it. I was already spreading out their desks and wiping down everything with my own wipes. Throughout this time, the subway looked like an episode of The Walking Dead. Dry coughs and chills everywhere. I haven't gotten sick, maybe because I started taking major precautions in January: constant hand washing, wiping everything (including my wallet, keys, phone) with disinfectant, social distancing, getting up early to avoid rush hour subways, not sitting near anyone who looked ill.

Another interesting comment: However, the other fascinating thing about these comments is how many of them are reporting suspected and untested cases of COVID-19. Certainly many of these will turn out to have been just the flu, but I bet many of them were indeed COVID-19, especially when people had negative flu tests. And that means that herd immunity may be higher than we think and that would be good news for a gradual, cautious lifting of restrictions. But without widespread testing (both for the virus and for antibodies), it will be difficult to plan the best course of action.

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…It’s nearly impossible to lock down a virus where it starts.  It can only work if it happens nearly immediately, burning an early novel outbreak doctors and health officials aren't even sure what they're dealing with. By the time there are discussions of travel bans, it's way too late …

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Amy S in Boston: This doesn't surprise me. My daughter was extremely sick in early February, with a high fever, cough and other flu like symptoms. She was so sick that missed two weeks of school, which has never happened before. We took her to the doctor twice; both times she was tested for the flu and strep, and the results were negative. Her pediatrician ended up diagnosing her with an unknown virus. It wouldn't surprise me if she had COVID-19 and it would be helpful to know. 

Note: 20 replies and “778 recommends” (so almost 800 NY Times subscribers seem to agree with Amy).

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I have heard numerous stories and they all share a dictate from high above; from the CDC, which took its marching orders, not from a lead epidemeologist, but from a National Security Council concerned more about "numbers" and supposed national security than the true fate of the American people.

A post about the almost non-existent early testing: The order from CDC went along the lines of: "you only get a test for Covid19 if you are in extreme distress and have met someone who traveled from China" (this is Oregon); my friend went in with Covid symptoms, was swabbed for the flu, proved negative, and was sent home. The staff who treated him at Urgent Care were modestly dressed for pandemic emergency. He still has residual respiratory symptoms almost 4 weeks later.

The testing criteria ruled out vast numbers of infected, evidenced by this report of undetected. Only now has California expanded the criteria to testing for anyone with "flu like" symptoms. Very crazy mismanagement of a threat warned about years ago.

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Another comment: I attend school in Boston. International students compose 15% of the student body. A majority of campus became infected with a flu-like virus between winter and spring break. The illness spread through the community along with the seasonal flu. The infirmary was inundated with students. In fact, students who lived within three hours of the school were asked to return home. 

On January 29, I was admitted to the infirmary for high fever (103°F) and tested negative for flu. I received antibiotics for bronchitis. However, these did not work, and I was not released for another week.

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This poster should read my “school closings” Substack article: “Five school districts in OH and KY closed on Feb 4th, some for a week.  The reporting indicated it was due to "flu and illness.”  This was 6 weeks prior to the coronavirus school closure in these parts.” (Note: Per my research, at least 30 schools and/or school systems closed in Ohio and at least six schools or school districts in Kentucky in the winter of 2019-2020 - See third ILI link on “other evidence” at top of this article).

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Another comment: My kids were sick in very early Jan. Fever, bad shivering, tired and bad aches. Both had flu shots in Oct. It passed in a couple of day and they were all better. At time thought nothing of it. I fell ill with same thing in early Dec. I had flu shot too.

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Theo Baker - Los Angeles (the same article or maybe a NYT article from April 23:  This exact thing happened to my kids in early February. Plus both girls had had long, lingering dry coughs all winter. As did all their friends. Both my kids were tested for flu, strep—both negative. Both missed two weeks of school. For both girls we called the doctor in the middle of the night with high 103 fevers. Both times we told the doctors, “this is isn’t how our girls normally get the flu.”

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Jen - Providence RI: I was sick as a dog in late January with a fever, dry cough, and severe lethargy. After a few days I had intestinal issues (to put it politely). Took me out of commission for a week. The same illness knocked out half the people in my office. When all of this started (first case in RI was March 1) we kind of joked that we were fine because we already had it. But now I think we may have actually had it.

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More YouTube comments after Mayor Melham video presentation …

Bryce Watson: I had it in November (2019), worse illness in my life.

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I WAS GRAVELY ILL IN DECEMBER 19-JANUARY 20 , I NEVER HAD A HIGH FEVER AND WHEN I WAS ILL I HAD CONSTANT FEVER FOR A WEEK, I HAD DIFFICULTY IN BREATHING, I SUFFERED FROM SORE THROAT AND HAD A LOT OF WEAKNESS!!I AM DEFINITELY SURE THAT I HAD COVID IN DECEMBER I AM FROM INDIA !!

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I second this poster’s opinion: “I also doubt the validity since it has not been 100% confirmed.  However, it is weird that major media, CDC, or any academic institutions did not shown any interest in investigating it.  One person in California died due to COVID-19 in early February (confirmed).  The person has not traveled to China.  So, she probably got it in January 2020 through community transmission.   That is not really that far away from November 2019.   There are so many factors we don't understand about COVID-19 … We should not try to cover up any potential case.  If we do, we are really not any better than China.”

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Matthew Guerra: I had it in the beginning of November 2019. I got sick with all the symptoms, and everyone in my house hold (about 12 of us) got sick too. Some of the kids even developed rashes a few weeks after being sick. It’s possible I got it at LAX a few days earlier coming back from Mexico.

Yes. you have to wonder about where the journalistic integrity is gone now? I suppose no one has the backbone enough to cover it. Probably thinking it would be career suicide. America isn't one for whistle blowers even if it is the right and moral thing to do. 

My comment: I’m covering it, Matthew!

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I had it November as well. From San Diego California.

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I was very sick in late October last year. Worst illness ever. I was tested for the flu, negative.

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My Ex-wife almost died of septic shock, in early October.  Had every symptom of Covid-19 too, ER, ICU for a week.  Who knows, could it have been??

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I wish this (video interview) would’ve gone viral. We all had it in December in my state. I know I did.

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Sonja Prough:  I had the exact same symptoms in November. I ended up in the hospital for 3 days. I had the hallucinations and sore throat for 3 weeks. I felt bad for almost two months with vision issues and I lost taste and smell. Thank you for coming forward. I am so tired of everyone telling me that I didn’t have it. My entire family got it. We were quarantined in the hospital for the baby having croup? Only 17 adults had croup the year before and my entire family got it? No way. I also believe it was here long before they knew it. It was like no other sickness I have ever had and I pray I never get it again. I also had a high heart rate and they tested my heart and it was fine. … It took me till January/February to be able to focus and feel normal again. I also lost 30 pounds.

peter couchman - Same, I was extremely ill with the same symptoms in November, became worse and lasted over a month; never get sick and never experienced anything like it before. Doctors did not know anything about it and was only given antibiotics.

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Stealing-Daisies:  I believe him.  I had it in December.  At that time thought it was just the worst flu I'd ever had.

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Tony: Start testing antibodies from blood banks to get the dates.

My comment: What a “tell” our trusted public health officials did NOT do this (with the exception of one study of archived Red Cross blood.) The results of that study took 11 1/2 months to publish.

Comment after NY antibody study story article

John Brown:  I am fairly certain I have already had COVID. Pretty asymptomatic. This was before lockdown. And based off the antibody studies most people are asymptomatic. It's likely you've had it already too.

Kenneth made the point I’ve been making years ago!

Kenneth Brady (Staten Island): IF (Big IF) this is true, it might be a game-changer.  It aligns with another top headline "Hidden Outbreaks Spread Through U.S. Cities Far Earlier Than Americans Knew.”  It would mean that 1) the virus is less deadly than previously assumed; and 2) our herd immunity is much further developed than previously assumed.

It depends on IF our testing is both accurate and readily available.

Another reader comment (I happen to agree with): “Less fatal...but way more infectious.”

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I had it in February, after international travel. Per other headlines today the majority of those who really got sick have serious chronic illnesses. Another factor to weigh in the absurdity of the lockdowns. Honestly it was just a weird cold.

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Chrissi "Not a CHOP Nut” - Tweet reply to Tracy Beanz: We wonder if my uncle died of COVID. He was hospitalized on 12/23/19, was on a ventilator, and died on 1/18/20. We don't have any proof, but they had infectious disease doctors treating him, not knowing from what he was suffering. We don't know what he died of. Visitors wore PPE.

Jenny Woodard Petty

… I genuinely wonder if I didn’t have COVID in December. I was incredibly sick. My doctor decided not to even test me for flu because he assumed I had it. But it was nothing like a case of the flu I’d ever had before. My chest hurt so bad and it took all of my energy just to breathe. I almost had my husband take me to the ER one evening because that paired with an out of control temperature started to scare me.

WTVY-TV Facebook Page comments … 

Note: These comments were made after a south Alabama TV station picked up the story on Tim and Brandie McCain’s almost certain December case in Sylacauga, Alabama. (I have written extensively about the McCain’s possible/likely early cases. In fact, a feature story on the McCains’ almost-certain early cases started my early-spread research.

Judy Geneva - Dothan, Alabama:  I had it too from just before Thanksgiving through Christmas. (Symptoms were) fever, pink eye, sore throat, bad cough and shortness of breath. Some days I couldn't get out of bed but some I could. My doctor said it was a respiratory infection. She was right they just didn't know about Covid19 yet.

Dewayne Quattlebaum: Same here. I got it the week before Thanksgiving and had it through Christmas.

Tia Hinerman Orlofske - Enterprise, AL: I believe that I went through the same thing in February. My husband & I went to Destin to the outlet mall then had dinner at Bubba Gump’s. Two days later I was soo sick. I spent a week at home. Shallow breathing, cold chills/sweats. My potassium & magnesium bottomed out. I finally went to the hospital in Enterprise. It was the worst experience.

Francis Voncille: Same as me. Took over a month to recover.

Jason Burgess - Enterprise: I believe I had it in Feb. I remember coughing violently, almost constantly and not able to breath in at all for about 2 minutes, almost like my windpipe closed completely shut. I also had high temperatures, body aches, and a severe loss of strength. All this lasted for about 3 weeks, and my cough didn’t clear up for at least a month after. It was brutal.

Darrin Kent: I think I had it in December, my cough lasted for at least a month also.

Felicia Clark: I believe that I had it also … I had a bad cough that started in November 2019, after self medicating, I went to my doctor who put me on antibiotics, did not help. I finally went to the Emergency Room because of the shortness of breath. I was hospitalized for 9 days. Symptoms were Flu, bronchitis, shortness of breath, fluid in my right lungs … Very low oxygen level that kept dropping. It took me about a month to get my strength back after being released. I thought I was going to die! God kept his angels around my bed!

Tammy Dee Zuniga: I thought I had it also in March coughing so bad and it started hurting my lung every time I coughed went ER and tested for flu and strip throat both negative. They did chest x-ray and diagnosed with upper respiratory infection. Anyway, I went and got the anti bodies test a week ago and it was negative for Covid 19.

• Sheila Taylor Ingle Aughtman - Wicksburg:  I’m sure my mother passed away in Feb from COVID-19 symptoms she had … (She) was in the hospital a month before it took her life.

• Amber Nicole Shaner - Michigan: Pretty sure my husband my daughter and myself had it as well. Had all the symptoms and that was the sickest I have even been. I was also 36 weeks pregnant.

• Hannah Hartzog McNeal:  I had bronchitis and pneumonia from Dec. 30 until the middle of February and I still have a cough. I’m an oxygen patient already but I've still been very restricted in my lungs.

• Connie Hill:  Pretty sure I had it too late November, had fever and horrible cough for 2 weeks felt awful. Can't wait to find out if I have antibodies.

• Teresa Newsome:  Yes, me too. l was sick the end of October till the end of December. I went to the doctor 4 times.

• Ryan Wright: How does this make news? This (Sylacauga, Alabama) is up where I live.  We all believe we had it back in December.

Valerie DeBolt:  I thought I had at the end of December but the antibody test says no.

Name not saved - I believe I had it in February in South Alabama.

Maria Parker: This mess has been around long before March (2020). (My daughter) got awfully sick at the end of January and then I got sick in February. Our symptoms were somewhat alike but mine seemed to be more intense. 

A sample of personal facebook messages I received after I asked my Facebook friends if they or anyone in their family had Coved-like symptoms before February 2000 …

Randall Curtis (from his wife, Melinda):  Randall had symptoms in late Dec/early January. Tested negative for flu and pneumonia in Jan.

Cindy Warren DeLongchamp - Montgomery:  First week in January - tested negative for regular flu, docs said had “virus.”  Cindy: “I thought I was going to die. My husband also had persistent cough for 3 weeks but was never tested.

Collin McCray - Troy: Onset of symptoms was Jan. 26th or 27th. Felt very sick and didn’t feel normal for at least two weeks. Never got a flu test. Did get an antibody test on 5-13-20. It was “negative.”

Griff McCrary - Collin’s son. - Collin said Griff was “presumed” to be positive for “regular flu.” Griff went to the doctor on Sunday, Jan. 26th, per Collin). 

Lyle Wise - Troy: Had a terrible and lingering cough, unlike any he has ever had before, in late January 2020. 

Tricia Radcliff - late Jan/early Feb. Owner of Dance studio in Troy: Approximately 12 (out of 24) of Trecia’s dancers who went on a trip to Orlando got sick around end of January/first of Feb. Tricia said she was very sick with a type flu she had never had before, but did not get a flu test. 

Dawn Knotts’ son - My son tested negative for flu at the University of Alabama infirmary in late February. He  was told he probably had bronchitis. His roommates were sick with the same symptoms at the same time.

Shannon Lapp & daughter Molly - panhandle of Florida - had about that time (late Jan/Feb). Shannon had pretty bad case (“felt like Elephant was on my chest”) and her daughter Molly had on-going low-grade fever.

Charlie Turnipseed & Cara Lott: Long persistent cough started about that time. Didn’t get tested.

Lisa & Randy Sprieul (Clanton): Had bad symptoms “in early November” - tested negative for flu and strep. 

Geoffrey Stough  - Had symptoms in December and told had pneumonia and pleurisy in January/

Mrs. Gene Schroeder - Troy - had very bad flu-like symptoms in late January, according to her daughter.  Her mother felt like “she was going to die.” Mrs. Schroeder tested negative for regular flu.

Louis Loving and his wife - Eufaula (50 miles from Troy):  Had flu-like symptoms in mid December, lasted six weeks; both got tested for flu twice and tests for regular flu were negative. Treated for walking pneumonia.

Jennifer Griffits - Tallassee, AL - October symptoms - tested negative for flu. Extremely sick for 2 weeks and didn’t feel normal for a month.

Walker Stallworth - Troy. Per his mother, in late January, Walker had a  fever that “went away quickly” but had a cough for at least 3 weeks.

Michael Thomas’s wife - Troy - had flu-like symptoms end of Dec - beginning of January - tested negative for flu. 

Warren Hunchison - South Carolina. Thinks he probably contracted Covid in mid January at a meeting with scientists in California and ”all of us got it.” 

Jimmy Ennis - “I had the symptoms from the middle of November til first of December.” Tested negative for flu.

Maria Braswell Ashworth’s son - Montgomery -  Per Maria, her son attended a conference in Las Vegas in January and came back “very sick.” Some people at conference had just been to China.

Hellen Morrow Taylor  - “My husband and I both had these symptoms in mid-January and at our annual physicals last week tested negative.” 

Wants to remain anonymous - Director of a Christian school. “Many” kids at school had symptoms in January early February (and maybe in December). The director came down with symptoms around Martin Luther King Day weekend (Jan 20th).

Tully Burnett - Florida - “Pretty sure I had it in that time frame but did not get tested for flu. Shortness of breath was the difference for me vs the flu.”

Bart McLendon - Troy. Mid-January - Felt bad for 3 weeks.

Connie Hill - Hartford, AL - “Pretty sure I had it late November.”

Sandy Huggins Lee, husband and son (Eufaula) - “Jeff and I both got what we thought was upper respiratory infections in January as well as our son Bryan. All test negative for flu and strep. It took me a month to completely get well. We all had steroid and antibiotics shots; my son has two rounds. I feel like we all had but can’t be sure.”

Butch Foster - Troy. Was in a Montgomery hospital for much of February - very ill, nearly died. Was in ICU unit for weeks. His daughter, Katherine Foster Bedsole, believes her father may have had Covid. Facebook message to me: “Bill, I do think he had it and then possibly gave it to us.” She said her father, approximate age of 80, tested negative for influenza three times. She also says she and her daughter soon contacted flu-like symptoms after first visit to see her father in the hospital. They also tested negative for flu. Mr. Foster’s case could be significant as he nearly died from possible CV-19 … in early Feb. She says his pre-admission symptoms were not like past flu’s or illnesses he’d previously experienced. His acute shortness of breath was one possible Covid symptom, according to his daughter.

***

Savannah Portis

We were all sick a few months back and I’m sure it was that. A choking cough, couldn’t breath, it was awful. They diagnosed us with uri! The only one that didn’t get sick in our house was my youngest Belle …. so 4 our of 5 in our house (had it) … crazy I know. My youngest was miserable. She was coughing so much I was scared she was going to start vomiting and her chest was burning.

Amanda Wells I was very sick for 2 days in beginning of Timmy's situation (in late December 2019) and I still have no taste or smell and a cough (in June 2020).

Parent from Alabama (wishes to remain anonymous):  My daughter (a student at the University of Alabama) had the antibodies test during her annual physical. It came back positive. She was very sick in January- strep, flu, & mono came back negative. Her group of core friends (8) all had the same symptoms and same test (negative flu, mono and strep) results.  She either had it in January or (contracted the virus later) and was asymptomatic … I remember she was very sick. She even got the steroid shot  UA health always gives for viral sickness. She said where it always worked - this time it did nothing.

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