Anyone infected before January 20 2020 ?

I don't fit your Covid category,

but, in the fall of 2019, I was teaching high school. The school nurse and I both observed that there were a few students with really long-lingering coughs. It did not seem to be highly contagious. I have thought since 2
January of 2020 that it began in the Fall of 2019.

I take immune suppressing medications and so try to be alert to infectious situations, especially when I was teaching and exposed to a lot of students. The school nurse was very supportive of my situation.

I really just want to scream!!!! about doctors not listening/not believing. It took 35 years to get a diagnosis for my autoimmune disease. My mother starting taking me to doctors when I was 17...got diagnosed at 52 yrs old.
You really, really have my sympathy!

Good luck!

Bless your heart sweet ladies! I believe you both. My daughter got sick in December of 2019 with what appeared to be the same symtpoms as Covid. It took her weeks to feel better. She got it again last July but recovered quickly. I understand as I have autoimmune issues and have to be so careful and now I have long Covid. I pray the Lord will take this virus completely away because HE is the only one who can! Love, Prayers & Hugs to you all.....

I got the flu in the last of the month in Nov. 2019. Three weeks later I got a very very bad Flu In the middle of Dec. 2019. I was working the floor in a Lowes store and were around 100s of folks a day. My lungs were so bad I had an awful time getting a good breath and my Fevers were as high as 104 and 105 several times. I wasn't diagnosed with Covid. They weren't testing at that time so I was diagnosed with a return of the flu. I had Covid. I didn't have any lasting effects from this virus.
February of this year 2023 I got Covid again. I just had a mild fever for 15 day's and slept the whole time. The covid left but now I have daily fevers on and off, I have severe dizziness and a lack of energy, appetite, and brain fog. I've lost 25# and wasn't over weight to begin with. Life sucks.
What's really disappointing is once in a while I will wake up feeling 120% better and feel it may be over. Once the feeling great lasted 7 day's then poof, it's gone. Why, What was different. It's happened 3 times since this has become my new normal.
But to answer the question, Yes I had it before it was a thing.

I was not infected early but I was well aware of the Covid situation because of my friends in Italy. Italy was the first Western country to face COVID-19 outbreak (and promptly it was the first one to adopt stringent procedures to stem the spread of infection and Italians followed the restrictions!). As I recall Covid arrived in Italy via a business traveler coming from Switzerland who had been to China. Italy was hit hard - it has a dense population with lots of close contacts so opportunity to spread quickly.
I had a plane ticket for April 2020 to Italy and had to cancel it because of Covid. My friends warned me early on to be careful as Covid was awful. I recall going to my doctor early Jan (before official in US) and asking the staff why there was no social distancing! I know someone who is an anesthesiologist in large Italian hospital and said it was like a war zone there.
So, it is not at all impossible that someone caught Covid in the US before it was officially confirmed ...lots of business/tourist travel.

I got sick with COVID on Oct 3rd, 2019. I was so sick I thought I was dying. The doctor's had no clue. They diagnosed me with every respiratory disease they could think of. I was so fed up that I started researched unknown diseases. I now have permanent damage to my lungs. Everyday is a struggle. The doctor's still don't really seem to know much more than they did back then. I feel pretty hopeless.

I’ve recently become aware of this Harvard study that suggests the first Covid outbreak in Wuhan was in August 2019, 4 months earlier than the December outbreak in Wuhan. China has come out with their own study that suggests covid was also circulating in the US by August 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52975934

i flew to montana, was in appleton,wi , stpaul/minn, mn and billings mt airports in december of 2019, caught covid then, i was really sick!! when i finally went to a doctor, my oxygen level was really low, had a fever and they said they didn't know how i was even walking around, i had no energy at all, that's when the coughing also started as well as the constant thick sticky phlegm that started in my throat...this was NOT post nasal drip, i still have it!!!!! i almost ended up in the hospital twice because it blocked my airway....the doctor tested me for all the different viruses they knew and they came back negative, they told me i definitely had a virus but did not know what it was because they had not seen this one before.....i'm still having a lot of these plus more symptoms...what the !@#$%^&* is this virus, i call it the devil virus....we have to keep fighting...there has to be light at the end of this tunnel....

Yes, Oct. 2019. Several of us instructors did. We taught a foreign population that worked at a meat processing plant, that ended up being a hub or outbreak epicenter. Many of these workers were complaining the fall of 2019 that something serious was going around and some had died already. I've never been that sick!

I don't understand what 2023 has to do with whether you got covid before or after January 2020 as you likely would not have been tested anyway as they were not testing people unless they were almost hospitalized. My mom got covid in late March 2020 and she only got tested because she was 90 and had a temp of 104 and got hospitalized. I know I had it as well, based on her having; but I could not get tested. But if you are still suffering it would be more long covid and since there is no real conclusive diagnosis for long covid because they can only speculate whether it is virus related, an inflammatory reaction, an auto immune response and/or desensitization in which all of that really is not based on when and if you got covid, but what is or causes "long covid". Yes, you are not alone in people not accepting long covid but that has nothing to do when or if you had covid to begin with, just that some people reject the idea of "long covid". But what they and your friends think is different than a doctor not seeking out what other clinics and practitioners are doing with cases they are labeling as long covid; by all means you have to find yourself another clinic/doctor. In addition to moving on from, you should report a doctor who says they will not treat symptoms because you claim to have had covid in early 2020 (who's to say you did not have it later also); as again it is irrelevant in terms of symptoms you have in 2023...I moved on from a doctor because he answered "what do you want me to do?" with regards to issues I had. Keep the focus on finding a good match with the right doctor and clinic rather than the bad ones you've encountered. In terms of that, check online for new opportunities in your area all the time. Best Wishes...

i caught covid flying to Montana , Dec 14th, 2019 on a plane from Appleton Wisconsin to a connect flight in Minn, Minnesota to Billings, Montana...planes and airport packed with people from U.S. and other countries...by the 4th day i was not feeling well and then really was sick, almost ended up in a hospital twice..finally went to a doctor, they said i had a fever, oxygen was low ( i could hardly walk with no energy , no appetite, a lot of phlegm in my throat..which i still have, and a cough as well as other things) ...they tested me for all the usual viruses etc..they told me i had none of the things they tested me for and said..i quote.."we have not seen this and do not know what it is but it is a virus and to go home and rest."...i still have 30 different long covid symptoms...went to a lot of different doctors after getting back, testing came back ok so it remained a puzzle to everyone..i then was referred to Mayo Clinic and they said they believed i did have covid back then...we tried different meds that didn't work, they too are overwhelmed by this stinking virus and ARE working on it..i'm listening to my body and leaning to care for it...i really wonder if this thing ever really leaves our body, maybe it's like shingles that waits to maybe torment you later..i don't know..long covid is real and has really messed me up now for over three and a half years but i'm still here and NEVER will give up...i refuse to let it win..prayers to all and keep fighting..you have to plug your brain to stay positive!!!!