Authorities are saying that we probably shouldn’t be afraid of this, because its symptoms usually parallel those of the common cold, and most people are infected by their 5th birthday. This link says it’s nothing to worry about, and others have too, but yeah, we’ve heard that before.
Yes, I recently did some research on this for another message board.
To summarize:
This is not a new virus. It was first formally identified in 2001.
This virus was originally discovered in Denmark, not China. Characterizing it as a “Chinese” virus is inaccurate.
It’s been in the US for at least a decade. There was a US outbreak in 2016 that pretty much no one noticed or remembered outside of public health types.
According to a couple sources I looked at as many as 1 in 6 “colds” in the US are actually caused by HMPV. The “common cold” is caused by about 200 different viruses, actually, it’s more a collection of symptoms than a discreet disease.
My research usually described it more like a cold than flu although to be frank “upper respiratory virus” symptoms are all pretty similar.
Generally not a huge problem for most people. It’s the very young, very old, and medically vulnerable that really have to worry about this.
China is a densely population nation so it really shouldn’t be surprising that they have an outbreak of “upper respiratory virus” from time to time because that stuff is easy to spread in crowded urban living.
(References: Wikipedia (history), WebMD, American Lung Association, CDC, and Cleveland Clinic.)
The sources I’ve seen have also said that HMPV is mostly dangerous to people with compromised immune systems (as is COVID), and since far too many people in China deal with malnutrition, it would be far more hazardous there than in an almost-universally developed country like the U.S.
I’m starting to wonder if I have this. I’ve had assorted, constantly-changing symptoms since Monday or Tuesday (it’s Saturday the 11th now) and the one common thing is that it feels like there’s a curtain of snot in the back of my nose, which requires me to mouth-breathe. If I’m not feeling better by Monday or Tuesday, I may go see my doctor.
A COVID test was negative.
Update: I went to a walk-in clinic on Sunday afternoon, because I was starting to feel concerned, and they examined me and gave me a swab that would test for COVID, influenza, RSV, and walking pneumonia. They called me this morning to tell me that I have RSV. No, I wasn’t vaccinated, and since I’m low risk except for being 60 years old, I still may not because my illness isn’t THAT bad.
I’m being told that I can expect to feel crummy for a few more days, and have a residual cough for a couple of weeks.