Have you personally had COVID.

[Failed Unit]

Unscientific but just interested in the forum’s experience.

For me if I look at the list of symptoms I would have gone for a test in Feb 2020 - if they were available.

 

[Bantamzen]

I've had to go with no but with possible symptoms. Certainly in the early part of 2020 I felt pretty lousy, with at least one or two of the symptoms. Whether or not it was covid, who knows.

 

[route101]

No, but did feel a bit wheezy in March last year. Cant be sure if it was or not.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Late February early march I picked up a cold/flu like virus that floored me. I was over the worst of it before lockdown. On reflection I wonder if it was COVID. 4 months later my wife tested for antibodies having had a the symptoms of what I passed on, but she didn't get hit as bad. I had one night of horrific fever and coughing with breathing difficulties but was better after that.

 

[Ian Cunningham]

Had a couple of typical 24hr-48hr colds (neither of which had any of the signature covid symptoms) and a period of very minor wheeziness but that's it
However a recent blood antibody test (part of the ONS Covid Surveillance Survey) returned a positive result which would indicate prior exposure or infection

 

[deltic14]

Both my wife and I contracted it last November from our 25 year old son who got it from a work colleague. Being over 55 with underlying health conditions I thought it was the end but ironically son was more ill than us probably because he had a higher initial exposure. Each day we developed different symptoms but not in the same order as each other. We were mildly ill for about six days then fine. The worst part was the incessant hounding from NHS track and trace. Repeating the same information to different person each time was painful. Each one gave a different end date for our isolation and had no knowledge of previous conversations. To be fair I have been more ill with tonsillitis in the past. Anyway I think we were lucky - a guy I worked with briefly who was the same age as me died from it just before receiving his first dose of vaccine.
For the record we have now had both jabs of the AstraZeneca vaccine and have had no side affects and has Bill Gates has not started controlling my mind...

 

[Crossover]

I tested positive back in April, picking it up from a family member. My symptoms were mild with a bit of a cough and complete loss of taste and smell (the latter still hasn't fully returned) but all in all, I wasn't too bad (nor were my family who all got it too)

 

[NorthOxonian]

In late February 2020, I travelled from my parents' house (where I was staying at the time) to Kendal in Cumbria.

My father came down with most of the classic symptoms a few days later, not that we realised what they were at the time. It also seems, from looking at the very earliest figures available, that South Lakeland had a lot of cases early on in the first wave. So my suspicion is that I had it without any symptoms but brought it back across the Pennines. It could all be a coincidence, but my gut feelling says that it isn't.

 

[richa2002]

Being over 55 with underlying health conditions I thought it was the end

I think this sums up the level of misinformation and disproportionate fear that has been ramped up during this whole thing if you thought that was the case. Unless you are very old and/or have a serious underlying health condition (the kind you are already in hospital for), the chances of succombing to COVID are extremely low. The power of the media and government propaganda is astonishing.

 

[Dai Corner]

I don't think anyone can say they definitely haven't had it, given that it can be asymptomatic.

I've had a test which detected antibodies but apparently that could have been from either a previous infection or from my vaccinations.

 

[SteveM70]

No. My eldest son did and was asymptomatic, and this coincided with me developing a cough and temperature so I got tested twice but both were negative. Just a coincidence I suppose

 

[seagull]

Yes, lasted five weeks, almost hospitalised. Fine now.

 

[BJames]

I tested positive in September, had all the classic symptoms fever, loss of taste/smell, aches etc, by the end of my isolation I was fine although the taste took a little longer to return. The rest of my house got it, but one of my housemates didn't get a test at the time but was ill too with all the same symptoms as the rest of us, so we were 99.9% sure he had it. Two weeks ago, he did an antibody test through the ONS Covid-19 Infection Survey that we take part in, and this returned positive.

 

[Failed Unit]

I don't think anyone can say they definitely haven't had it, given that it can be asymptomatic.

I've had a test which detected antibodies but apparently that could have been from either a previous infection or from my vaccinations.

I must admit, very surprised by the don’t know % so far.

 

[Darandio]

I must admit, very surprised by the don’t know % so far.

I'm not, i've always suspected many have had it without even knowing exactly what it was. Especially between December 2019 and September 2020.

 

[WestCoast]

I'm not, i've always suspected many have had it without even knowing exactly what it was. Especially between December 2019 and September 2020.

I think so too. I had the classic symptoms for around a week back in February 2020, I remember feeling breathless at night and that stood out as I'd never experienced that before. At the time I just thought it was a slightly weird flu. I had another bout of flu recently (testing negative for COVID) and never felt the breathlessness so that does make me quite suspicious. Not got round to doing an antibody test.

 

[D6130]

I had a hacking dry cough - especially at night - for our entire three week stay in Italy over Christmas and New Year 2019/20. It was so bad that, after two nights, my wife banished me to the spare room for the rest of our stay, to enable her to get some sleep. After a couple of weeks with no let-up, I went to see the village doctor, who diagnosed acute bronchitis and prescribed a week's worth of strong antibiotics.....after which it cleared up. However, we now know that Covid-19 was already circulating in Italy at that time and I've never before had a bronchial cough that doesn't produce phlegm. I didn't have any of the other classic Covid symptoms and never got around to having an antibody test, so I suppose that I'll never know for certain. One thing's for sure, however, is that common colds and 'flu seem to have been almost eradicated in our part of the world since the first lockdown....presumably as a result of much improved hand hygene and a lack of hugging and kissing.

 

[nlogax]

Roll on widespread availability of antibody tests!

 

[Horizon22]

No, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was asymptomatic as practically half my office had it around Xmas time and we were all in fairly close proximity.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I've had two supposed "colds" (coughing, runny nose, feeling like death, etc.) since the start of the pandemic. 90% sure these weren't COVID-19, but I was never tested, so who knows!

The second one was particularly bad, however - might have been the flu.

 

[Mojo]

I was ill in March last year with a short lived temperature, and a cough. I couldn’t smell anything for about a week other than the steak I’d cooked at the start of my illness. No tests available back then of course. To be honest if the advice wasn’t to stay off work then I’d have gone in as normal because I wasn’t that bad.

 

[Mintona]

Nope, and not had anybody I know, in my personal life at least. I’ve ‘heard of’ a few colleagues having it.

 

[LancasterRed]

Know plenty of people who've had it.

I've been on the ball throughout and booked tests when symptomatic but fortunately every test so far has come back negative.

 

[Crossover]

To be honest if the advice wasn’t to stay off work then I’d have gone in as normal because I wasn’t that bad.

Ordinarily, the symptoms I had probably wouldn't have kept me at home. I probably felt worse for being stuck at home, to be honest!

 

[greyman42]

I had it over the Xmas period. I felt absolutely terrible for about a week. About two and a half years ago i had a genuine bout of flu (not just a cold which some people choose to call flu) and i would say the flu was slightly worse but there was not much in it.

 

[pnepaul]

I had it in April 2020. Seven days in hospital. not in intensive care, but 5 days on Oxygen. About 3 months to recover. I had no underlying health issues....

 

[Wuffle]

Both my wife and I had a "Flu like illness" (diagnosed by surgery nurse for my wife's doctors note for work ) in November 2019
Normally I suffer more with respitory illnesses than she does but not this time. Their is evidence that those whose blood group is O suffer less, I'm O she is A
She was off work for 4 weeks and it didn't really clear until the end of January

 

[adc82140]

Had it moderately badly last November. No fever, no cough, no loss of taste/smell (at least not until 10 days later, so I had to lie to get a test). Very breathless in week 2, and debated whether to go to the hospital. Knackered for a month. Never felt so ill.

However, I am still anti restrictions. It's up to us as individuals to manage our own risks.

 

[Merseysider]

Tested positive at the start of September - fairly sure I know where I picked it up (some bloke coughing in a Budapest restaurant) but didn’t have any symptoms whatsoever and spent a completely uneventful 10 days at home.

However, some of my colleagues around the same age had a horrendous time when they picked up the virus, and the two friends who also tested positive after the same trip had a fever, cough, loss of taste, the works.

Now got a vaccine booked for Thursday - not quite being 30 yet I’ve had to wait.

 

[rg177]

I had a persistent cough and intermittent fever with loss of taste and smell for about a week over the New Year into 2020.

At the time I was interrailing and put it down to a slightly bad cold, including within Northern Italy and other areas that turned into epicentres of infection!