I'm in San Francisco Bay Area. Caught a horrid flu in early November 2019. Worst flu in my entire life but sweated it out in bed under heavy covers while loading up on lemon and honey hot tea, nibbling on Brazil nuts (high in zinc) and sipping chicken broth for 3 days barely able to move being so weakened. I got super lucky feeling the first symptoms' onset while walking into a grocery store so I could get those nuts, lemons, and broth. Popped up with just a lingering cough for about 5 months.
My county's health department website noted in CY 2019 Qtr 4 a slightly unusual spike in "Influenza A" when I surfed there in mid-December 2019 wondering what kind of flu I'd likely had. Those previously easy to find annual county flu charts dropped off that county website sometime in 2020 when I next checked it after the bat flu fear porn was going full blast. See page 2 here for a hint at my county's 2019 Q4 Influenza A spike: https://publichealthproviders.sccgov.org/sites/g/files/exjcpb951/files/Documents/flu-2021-week15.pdf
I have no doubt whatsoever most USA health authorities played funny bunnies with identifying who had what flu in CY 2020.
I had been doing a lot of work indoors in very close quarters in October and November 2019 with people from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. One Asian gentleman had a very bad spitting cough. Perhaps I just got a standard seasonal USA flu or perhaps something "novel" to me from overseas. Or maybe simply work or other stressors tipped over my immune system. But whatever I got was novel to me because I never before had a flu cause me to lose so much lung capacity for so many months nor flatten me for more than 2 days.
Re: flu mixed up with COVID
I'm in San Francisco Bay Area. Caught a horrid flu in early November 2019. Worst flu in my entire life but sweated it out in bed under heavy covers while loading up on lemon and honey hot tea, nibbling on Brazil nuts (high in zinc) and sipping chicken broth for 3 days barely able to move being so weakened. I got super lucky feeling the first symptoms' onset while walking into a grocery store so I could get those nuts, lemons, and broth. Popped up with just a lingering cough for about 5 months.
My county's health department website noted in CY 2019 Qtr 4 a slightly unusual spike in "Influenza A" when I surfed there in mid-December 2019 wondering what kind of flu I'd likely had. Those previously easy to find annual county flu charts dropped off that county website sometime in 2020 when I next checked it after the bat flu fear porn was going full blast. See page 2 here for a hint at my county's 2019 Q4 Influenza A spike:
https://publichealthproviders.sccgov.org/sites/g/files/exjcpb951/files/Documents/flu-2021-week15.pdf
I have no doubt whatsoever most USA health authorities played funny bunnies with identifying who had what flu in CY 2020.
I had been doing a lot of work indoors in very close quarters in October and November 2019 with people from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan. One Asian gentleman had a very bad spitting cough. Perhaps I just got a standard seasonal USA flu or perhaps something "novel" to me from overseas. Or maybe simply work or other stressors tipped over my immune system. But whatever I got was novel to me because I never before had a flu cause me to lose so much lung capacity for so many months nor flatten me for more than 2 days.
W.R.