Retroactive testing?

I know this is impossible, but for the sake of discussion think about this:
How many people this past winter/fall have had Covid 19 and recovered without ever even knowing any different? I think it would be very interesting to see. I don't doubt the seriousness of this situation at all, but I am betting several people have had this and never thought of it other than a normal flu. I am not going to argue with anyone, just wondering what others think.

If this already ran its course last november we wouldnt be having this outbreak of it now. I think this has already spread faster and further than people realize now. If you think you dont have it in your hometown, you are probably wrong. For instance we just found out a neighbor down the road tested positive for this friday. She got sick monday and took the test...and was infected sometime the previous week or two. SO by the time you get a positive test it has already been around and noone knew it,

I don't think that is anything we'd expect to see until get past the big bubble so to speak.. Would think they could or maybe even want to make post exposure test.. Could even be part of the research they're doing now. Just don't hear about it in the all the hub-bub. Would think eventually the statistics type people would want some kinda sample??

Mac

before the travel ban, Chinese were flying into this country by the tens of thousands, mostly into the left and right coast airports. no way this virus didn't come here with them, as so many were infected over there. its been spreading here since that time, disguised as the "regular" flu. MY OPINION.

my sister tested positive over the weekend. had a low grade fever for about a week, but no cough. her husband is on a scheduled dose of chloroquine for arthritis, and he has no symptoms of any kind.

Should be able to test for antibodies in the blood and be able to tell weather you’ve had it or not.

I think that when the time comes, post crisis, that will be some very interesting data. I find it hard to believe that this somehow suddenly appeared in Wuhan sometime in November/December 2019, and did not exist prior to that. There are a lot of people and goods that transfer between continents, and I can't discount the potential that it may have begun filtering out prior to the current explosion worldwide.

Moosetrot

I believe there are many more that have/ had it without symptoms than we can amagine.

This one seems to pass along easy, but is less severe than most flu being most dying from it have 3 or more existing illnesses and are in their later years.

I think 100's of thousands had it before it had a name or a test.
I think right now thousands who have it are denied testing and sent home.

The scary numbers don't reflect any of this

Speaking of Testing, in my area, they won’t give you a test even if you have all of the symptoms, “Unless” you have travelled abroad. Pretty stupid, I think, when this area has hundreds of thousands of people coming from abroad. (The Grand Circle). Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, etc. etc.

I think OP is asking about CV antibody testing.
It looks like the tests will be available fairly soon. This will allow you to determine if you have already had the virus, whether or not you had symptoms or were asymptomatic.
If you have the antibodies the thought is is you will then have some degree of immunity. There may already be a lot of us who are already immune but just don't know it.

This ^^^^^^

And once tested, if you are showing antibodies, and yet no current positive for the virus (meaning not still spewing active virus to infect others), those appear to be good candidates to go back to work / circulation. The first step in re-starting the economy. This assumes the antibodies are still good and you are not likely to get infected again.

If this works, those folks will be the first wave to go back to work, and maybe even work in high risk places. That may even include a lot of folks who are still laying low in isolation out of fear they might get it.

So two critical tests still needed.....one for antibodies and one for the virus. The cheap and quick kind of tests. They are supposed to be coming.

I personally don't feel there was very much here last fall as this is a new strain of Corona and thus no one has any immunity and thus I feel we would have had more severe cases and deaths back then as well, especially as some are saying that they feel thousands could have been infected and recovered. An 85 year old was just as likely to be infected in November as March. Also one would have thought that with as many that get hospitalized for flu that some positive tests for other viruses would have been discovered. To me it seems unlikely that only highly resistant and strong immune system persons would have been those infected 5 months ago versus what we see today.

Bryce

They will not use a test on you here unless you are sick enough to need hospitalization. They send you home to quarantine. The first positive test we had in this county was a doctor that got tested. There are PLENTY of people around that show all the symptoms of it but arent bad enough to really need a doc. So the "numbers" everyone here cant even be close to right. Only thing they can count accurately is dead people.

^^^^^
What make you think someone could have been infected back in November? This is a new CV, #2.

A couple things to consider. Whooping cough was going through the population last fall. It gave a nasty dry cough that for some, led to pneumonia. As far as I’ve read, nobody here was looking for a new/novel corona virus because there was a candidate already that provided an explanation.

Yeah, the novel corona virus, eventually dubbed covid-19 started in Asia but so what? Everything starts somewhere. As I’ve written before, China didn’t report it to the rest of the world because they had no definitive test to use to find it: you can’t report what you don’t know. Our problem was that we didn’t act when China had a test and were telling us it was coming.

Let’s stop pointing fingers. We knew it was coming and now that it’s here, we’re tasked with understanding it better and treating those who have. It’s time to get ‘er done. This is what America is better known for. Let’s do it.

What makes you think it wasn't killing people in Nov, but not recognized.

22,000 plus dead from the flu this year, if we had never heard of, or figured out this was a new virus, would we really be doing anything different? Or would it just be a really bad flu season.

I think it is definetly possible that several people I know have had it, and got over it like they would most viruses.

I have been in quarantine for almost 2 weeks I have a bad bad cough no sense of smell, runny nose but no fever. I was in clinic same day are first person was diagnosed . I call there hot line talk to doc he said in less you can’t breath stay home . So I moved into cabin on property and have stayed put. Granite I work from home and my cabin is next to my shop so no big deal . But I have friends all same symptoms and no one is getting tested so who knows who many have it . They say there is 102 last night that number could be way bigger in less they just start testing random people say take 500 people in my community and see if it is all over and the death rate is lower we will never no.

More people are going to die of poverty ( bankruptcy )and lose of insurance then this virus will probably kill.

Hope you feel better soon.

The economic ramifications of the reactions to covid-19 are going to be bad. Movie theaters will be down for many months, sports stadiums will not be filled again this year, restaurants are basically finished for dine in for months or the year, brick and mortar college campuses are done for the year....maybe longer....all those college towns are in for a hard time, travel industry, cruise industry, airlines, all small shops/businesses, barber, hair salon, manicure salons, city and county revenues from tickets issued via police will be @ an all time low because police want to stay away from people......lack of police patrols/early release of criminals = higher crime....and this is worldwide....I hear India is going to make over a billion people stay at home for a month. You shut down the global economy as it never has ever been shut down before and anything can happen....maybe this was the globalist/china plan form the get go?
People are still trying to get their heads wrapped around the virus and have not really thought of what is going to happen after....or really right now as the shut down effects are upon us @ this minute..this thing peaks in june/july and then is right back ramping up in Sept.....

And how is it that China had so few cases/deaths????????

Because those are the numbers China has given....

Logistically there are certain numbers nobody releases. Like what % of your armed forces have been infected, for one. Telling the world 4% of your troops are ill let’s one’s enemies know you’re vulnerable. #2, Every kid entering college in China is made a soldier. Every college kid gets a uniform and goes through a couple weeks of military training. It isn’t vigorous, but it gives them a taste. They are considered student soldiers for the 4 years of college, but they can be called up any time the government feels there is a need. I doubt they’d report the student soldier numbers either. I suspect the numbers in state run businesses (factories and power plants) might also not be reported again to avoid showing an enemy another area of weakness.

It’s still got to be going on all over the country. They’re just not as open as we are in sharing the numbers. I know for a fact that k-12 education is still being done by video. College is being done the same way. From what I’ve heard, city streets and highways are sparsely populated. People are staying in as much as possible even now.

But, and you can read this online from AXIOS and CNBC, the Chinese are going to be flying in 22 flights of medical gear and all of this has been coordinated via FEMA in the coming weeks. If they’re such a threat, we wouldn’t have sent tons of medical supplies to them in their hours of need nor would our government be buying 60% of what they’re shipping now.

I,m with Team V. Going to be deaths, lives destroyed from the economic problems. Seeing it right here in my family. Drug abuse up, crime up. Letting prisoners out early. When the city, county, state tax bill is due, how do broke people and bankrupt businesses pay that? How do govt. entities pay employees? Govt. lay offs? I'm skeptical of that. Maybe Feds can just keep the printing presses humming!
With just a little bit of fear, the US population came crying and begging to the federal/state governments to save us. This lesson will not be lost on the Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosis in the future!
MT

https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/coronavirus-testing-iceland

Icelands random testing shows nearly half of the positives had no symptoms.

The USS Theodor Roosevelt is currently docked in Guam testing it's entire crew. The first 3 popped positive15 days after the last port call. So either it was brought on by aircrew or somebody asymptomatic had been aboard for 2 weeks. The last news feed I saw said 36 positives. Screening the entire crew will give us good data on the sick, asymptomatic & those who have already recovered.

Very interesting and diversified answers.
Thanks for all of the responses.
Stay healthy!

Many viruses can have or create what is called "super carriers" That is persons or animals that show absolutely no symptoms and can shed huge amount of virus for very extended time periods. To me it seems very likely with as many people that have been exposed throughout the world that some carriers would meet the definition of super carrier and that would be very problematic at the least.
Time is precious now but to me another way to work on combating the disease or the acuteness of the disease may be to do blood tests on members of households who do not contract the disease or stay very asymptomatic when others get sick or very sick. There may be some antigens or immune system products that could help fight this disease. They are already talking about a new wave this fall and we will be better prepared for sure but what we will witness the next 2-4 months will be troubling for sure.

Bryce