Could Tina Harrington of Columbus Ohio have actually been one of the first cases of COVID-19 in the country?
According to anecdotal evidence, Harrington had “this weird throat thing, kinda scratchy” for nearly a month in 2013.
“It was the year I worked at the restaurant, so it must’ve been the spring of 2013,” Harrington clarifies. “It must’ve been the virus.”
Wow! Talk about early detection!
This evidence would push back researcher’s estimates on when the virus landed on American shores by not just months – but years.
“These dates and locations would indicate that the virus may not have even originated in Wuhan at all,” says epidemiologist Debra Cortez. “But we’re taking this singular case very, very seriously.”
“Of course there’s no way of confirming if what Ms. Harrington had was in any way related to Coronavirus,” Cortez says. “The spring dates would make some question whether Ms. Harrington just has some form of undiagnosed allergy.”
But since it’s a real free-for-all right now, we’re going to assume that Tina is 100% correct.
Tina, for her part, is convinced there is more to the story than international disease experts would have you believe.
“It was just too weird,” she says. “I swear it was this like itchy pain that wouldn’t go away. And I was kinda tired the whole time, I think. It’s hard to remember.”
