I guess I should say I’m skeptical because this is an anecdotal report by ONE researcher that has not been to my knowledge peer reviewed; then Deniers jump all over and say “we’ve had it all along, march everyone back to the meat plants!”
They did the same thing with the Santa was Clara county report. Not peer reviewed, small sample the same reaction by the Deniers.
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Santa was Clara?
The first definite case (through blood samples) goes back to the 50s, but there is documentation of illnesses that sound like AIDS in isolated central African area back to the late 1800s.
But of course you can’t tell for sure.
Marburg disease broke in Europe (in a lab setting) in the late 60s, then stopped. It appeared in three isolated cases (all involving people in contact with bat caves) till the late 90s, when epidemics started.
Marburgvirus’s cousin Ebola, started in the late 70s. At the time the viruses were considered identical but they produced different antibodies, so the doctors knew they were different.
But stories of both diseases flaring up in tiny numbers and dying out go way back from their first actual cases.
So it would seem viruses pop in and out of populations, until they find a particular population they can exploit or mutate enough, so they don’t kill off their hosts before they can multiply.
Flu tests are notoriously unreliable, especially the quick ones doctors can do on site. I had flu this January (and it was almost certainly flu, not COVID) and my test was negative. But the doctor looked at me, listened to my description (very rapid onset, fever, aches) and diagnosed me (appropriately) with flu. That is very common.