On March 12th the first official case of COVID-19 was confirmed here in Maine.  But there were those that were very sick much sooner than that.

A recent government study of American Red Cross blood donations given between December 13th of 2019 and January 17th of this year has revealed the presence of COVID-19 antibodies, suggesting that those donors had already had the novel coronavirus weeks before it was officially confirmed in the United States on January 20th..

Couple the results of that study with the results of a Jackson Lab analysis announced back in September, and chances are if you were sick as a dog between the last quarter of 2019 and when the first official case was confirmed here in Maine on March 12th, you may have had COVID-19.

The first week of January a salesman came into this author's studio with a deep persistent cough, and then sometime during the following week I became as sick as I had ever been.  My symptoms were a horrible persistent cough that produced no phlegm. Numerous fevers where I’d wake in the middle of the night to damp sheets. Headaches, no appetite, no sense of taste or smell, diarrhea and no urge to get out of bed. The worst of it lasted  almost a week.

While the cough subsided in intensity, it then lasted for what seemed like two months afterwards.  I never went to the doctor, but the salesman did.  His doctors told him that it wasn't bronchitis, and that was that.  When I eventually returned to work I listened to him cough as well for what seemed like forever.

To this day I feel fatigued when I shouldn't. There are other noticeable things that make me wonder if I indeed had COVID.

Like the recent government study talked about, one way to find out is to donate blood to the American Red Cross, and it will be analyzed for the presence of COVID-19 antibodies. Someone in need of blood would appreciate the "gift of life" and your suspicions may be confirmed as well.

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