Wuhan hospital traffic, search engine data indicate virus activity in Fall 2019
Here are a couple of anecdotal data points:<p>I was traveling in Japan and Taiwan in October of 2019.  I came down with a weird flu-like illness that persisted for three or four weeks (much longer than a flu would have normally lasted for me).  And it wasn't just that the symptoms persisted.  I really felt <i>sick</i> for that long (with fever and sweats).  The flu-like thing also came after a week or so of diarrhea.  Could have just been GI issues related to traveling but who knows?  Ever since it was reported that the pandemic may have begun earlier than had previously been thought, I've been wondering if I didn't in fact get this virus very early on.<p>I also had a colleague with me who was traveling with his wife.  His wife was also very sick with some kind of super-flu like thing.  She was saying it was basically the worst flu of her life.