How long has the virus been in the US?
 

Upon retrospect I personally know two individuals who I would have considered healthy that passed away in the months of January or February from "sudden respiratory issues" (assumed pneumonia).

Both were from Florida.

Learning more about their symptoms I am becoming convinced that the corona virus has been in the US a lot longer than people realized.

My neighbor (fit 30-something) was down hard with a bad flu a couple months ago. She does a lot of travel.

In retrospect her symptoms were textbox COVID, which has a slightly different presentation. Could have just been the flu, but maybe not.

Other friends (family of four) all had the flu in Jan (didn't get the shot, too busy). I'm guessing that was actually the flu... they have close contact with all four elderly grandparents, and they're all still fine (presumably had the flu shot at their age). There is still a lot more flu than COVID out there.