I honestly think this virus is EVERYWHERE!

[Drahthaardogs]

Just about every other person I know seems sick with something!

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. But it"s the "Chinese virus.".

[rzemanfl]

5. Bookmarking. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

2. That's common this time of year though.

My family's been in lockdown for a couple of weeks, and we've been passing something around. One of the kids had a bad cough for about 10 days, and the other one has been running a fever the last couple of days.

I'm pretty sure it's not the Trump virus though, since I think my mother and I would be toast if it was.

[RandySF]

3. IHard to say.

I have seasonal allergies. Lot of sneezing and sniffling but no other symptoms.

[Peregrine Took]

4. Several people I know have a bad case of bronchitis.

But no other symptoms.

[Siwsan]

6. Lots of people have common cold viruses and allergies, this time of year, too

That's not to say that this particular coronavirus isn't very prevalent. The only way to see how many people have it, but are either asymptomatic, have mild symptoms or just might have a strong resistance, is to test everyone, and that's never going to happen.

From everything I've read, the real alarm trigger is a high temperature, sore throat and aches and pains, and chest tightening with trouble drawing a deep breath.

I've had some sort of virus that's been hanging on, albeit mildly, now, since February. My throat was scratchy for a few hours, and I had a cough and stuffy nose but no fever, no aches or pains. I feel just fine but I'm self isolating just because it's the smart thing to do,

[BGBD]

7. It is "that time of year"

but I agree, it should be assumed that it is everywhere. I believe that are lots of people who are experiencing what they tell themselves is a cold that is actually COVID-19. We aren't identifying cases in most places until they get bad enough that somebody ends up in the hospital with something that is bad and they finally order a test.

The question is how many cases are not being diagnosed because they are asymptomatic or they are having a mild course that never elevates to a point where they either seek medical help or that medical help orders a test.

For example, I have a coworker who came down with something two weeks ago. He was coughing, congested, hoarse, etc. He is feeling some better now, but still not all the way back. He went to the Dr. and got a negative flu test and was told "You have a viral infection" and was given some meds. He, to me, clearly was showing some of the signs you might look for in COVID-19, but those are also symptoms common to any repository illness.

As you said, almost everyone I know has been sick with something over the past few weeks. How many of those were from COVID-19 and how many were from something more mundane, I don't know.

I've seen modelers who suggest that cases might be closer to 400,000 in the US, which would change what we know about COVID-19 substantially. We aren't going to know for sure how many infections we had until after the pandemic is over and we can do some randomized testing to see how common COVID antibodies are.