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Comment by CalRobert | Hacker News Reader

"SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had arrived in the country on frozen lobsters from Maine that were sold at the Wuhan market"

..... I know, strongly, that this is purely an anecdote.

But this was kind of crazy to see. In Dec 2019 my family and I traveled from Europe to visit family in Maine. We returned around new year's and all got what was by _far_ the worst flu any of us had every had in our lives. And weirdest - it was consistent with covid symptoms.

My youngest was 2 months old (we flew back with her to meet family) and she was quite ill - we still suspect long covid affects her.

Now, entirely possible this is confirmation bias, and airports would have been full of travellers from all over, not just Maine, but still...

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The Dec 2019 bug also hit me (living in NYC). I wasn't mentally myself for three weeks. I'm not even sure I fully recuperated. It was intense, and worse than when I eventually did experience COVID a couple years later.

From what I read at the time, there was a non-COVID flu at this time throughout the east coast. Tests months later did not show I had COVID antibodies. It remains to me a remarkable sickness unlike anything else I've experienced.

Same with my sister and her husband (London) Worst flu they ever had, I was looking after their kids. That said, later they tested positive for Covid antibodies

My child and mother both got super sick like this in March 2019 also, so naturally my wife and mother both think it was early covid. What makes me doubt this is the fact that when Italy and NYC got hit in 2020, there was a HUGE jump in deaths. They couldn't keep up with the bodies. If this thing was circulating earlier than 2020, we surely would've seen the Italy/NYC pattern very quickly. I think the 2019 flu virus or RSV strains were perhaps a very harsh one and that's what people are mistakenly believing was "early covid".

Perhaps the virus evolved to be more deadly after the initial wave of “flu”?

To my recollection Italy had an unusually high amount of strong pneumonia at the end 2019, apparently not covid.

The deaths sure spiked later though.

I wonder if it was an earlier variant of Covid, but I guess they would have detected that.

Could it be worth reaching out to a researcher? If you've NOT had Covid since, you may have evidence in your own bodies that would be useful.

> If you've NOT had Covid since, you may have evidence in your own bodies that would be useful.

Unlikely. By this point, hasn't pretty much everyone had COVID? My understanding is recent variants often don't even lead to very severe symptoms and may not be recognized as COVID.

We’ve definitely had it since, sadly.

It's clear COVID was circulating by then. I remember a story about an American guy in the US, west coast somewhere, in whose Nov 2019 blood samples they found antibodies. IIRC first reports of unusual respiratory disease in China are from October.

If that was indeed COVID then this stuff was around and not only in Wuhan.

>The lobster maps

https://pandemonium.hypotheses.org/898

China has consistently pumped out alternative origins for Covid. It was on frozzen lobsters, they paid youtubers to promote it was frome whitetail deer, biolabs, anything to regain face. Meanwhile the rest of the world, just moved on .. its kind of funny, these dictator neurosis in public. Almost a 2nd loss of face after the first.

The article teaches you alot about soviet systems though the incompetence repairing perceived damage not by reform, but by rewritting history and narratives.

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