Desert Sun 19 February 1979 article,
"Common Cold Care Costly"
We loosely call a "cold" anything that produces cold-like Symptoms. But a "cold" can be caused by over 200 strains of virus, of which only about 130 are Strains of rhinovirus or coronavirus, the main cold viruses. Other viruses that sometimes masquerade as colds include those that cause flu. pneumonia and bronchitis.
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19790219.2.59&dliv=none&st=1&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN-coronavirus——-1
1987 Folks!
Steamboat Pilot article, May 7, 1987
"New breakthrough in multiple sclerosis study"
Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center, on the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus, and the Denver Veterans Administration Medical Center announce that they have detected coronavirus fragments in the brains of some multiple sclerosis patients.
The coronavirus was found in more than 50 percent of the MS patients, but less than 10 percent of the non-MS patients had the virus fragments.
https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=STP19870507-01.2.106&dliv=none&st=1&e=——-en-20–1–img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-coronavirus——-0–
Daily Kent Stater, 31 March 2003. Deadly disease spreads; travel advisory expands
The CDC has reported 62 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SAKS, in the United States, and at least 35 cases have been reported in Canada, where three people have died. But the majority of the cases have been in Asia, where the illness is believed to have originated.
On Saturday, the first doctor to realize the world was dealing with an unfamiliar disease died of the illness in Thailand. Dr. Carlo Urbani, 46, of Italy, a World Health Organization expert on communicable diseases, became infected while working in Vietnam, where he diagnosed a U.S. businessman hospitalized in Hanoi, the U.N. agency said. The businessman later died.
U.S. health officials believe illness comes from a new form of coronavirus, the virus that causes about a fifth of all colds.
https://dks.library.kent.edu/?a=d&d=dks20030331-01.2.15&dliv=none&st=1&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN-coronavirus——
>the novel coronavirus
That is the problem with today's reporting. Coronavirus is not novel. It just reforms again and again and is one cause of many common colds.
>Is it plausible to suggest that we may have already had it without realising?
Yes. It made the rounds in DC in early January but it was mild and not pegged as COVID19. Also, it's been circulating in the US before for decades and likely those who have had it won't get it again. This is simply a newer form and hitting hard in some areas. Who knows, lots of misinformation!