Was That Cold I Had in November or December Coronavirus?
It’s a comforting thought at a time of mass death from an historic and unpredictable pandemic: What if I had it already—maybe even that time I felt sick a few months ago?
After all, while antibody testing is only now being rolled out in any significant numbers—and its reliability remains in doubt—the hope is that having recovered from the illness might offer some measure of immunity to reinfection. And the documented prevalence of so-called “silent”—or asymptomatic—spreaders suggests many Americans have unknowingly been infected.
But public health experts told The Daily Beast that even if the virus was spreading in the United States earlier than the first confirmed case in Washington in mid-January, anyone hoping they had it as far back as November or December is likely to be disappointed.
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