You have already been infected with a coronavirus, almost certainly

[MineralMan]

https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_causes

The common cold we all seem to get once a year or more is caused by viruses. Three common varieties, in different strains, are usually the cause:

Coronavirus
Rhinovirus
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Other viruses, too, can result in the symptoms we refer to as the common cold. There are many variants and genetic mutations for all of those viruses, which is partly why we keep catching colds.

Typically Coronavirues cause most Winter and early Spring colds. Rhinoviruses are more common in Summer and fall.
RSV colds are less common, but can occur any time.

Any cold can lead to complications like bronchitis, pneumonia, or other upper respiratory symptoms. People with other illnesses can be more seriously affected.

The new coronavirus strain is more likely to cause pneumonia that most coronaviruses. Still, most people who get it will pretty much have what seems like a common cold. that makes it more dangerous, really, because we tend to continue our daily activities when we have something like a cold.

[LizBeth]

1. I had one a month ago that started with coughing for a good 24 hours then went to

cold. It was odd and not experienced a cough first. Mostly I figure I have a cold when I feel a sore throat or start sneezing. The cough lasted well after the cold. A cough I could not get air in lungs and thought maybe it went into bronchitis. But, I healed. I wash hands lots. I deal with customers a lot, from all over the world and up and down the west coast. I wash hands, a lot.

[MineralMan]

2. My wife and I had something like that this fall.

No runny nose or sore throat. Just bronchitis that lasted for about three weeks. No fever, so we didn't do anything except take OTC meds like Mucinex DM, in generic form. I wouldn't call it a cold, but it was one of those sub-clinical virus respiratory things. Probably caused by RSV or a rhinovirus.

No fever, no doctor visit for me. It's a waste of time to go to the doctor for a viral respiratory thing.

It was a nasty one, though, and others around here also had something much like it.

[LizBeth]

3. Ya, just like that. I talked to a doctor customer about getting a steroid shot and he said

it might end up making it last longer. Saved me a trip to doctors office and waiting rooms. I figured cold because I felt so lousy for a couple days. But no other signs of cold but weak and tired.

[MineralMan]

4. I always ask myself, "Have I had something like this before?"

Most often, the answer is yes, so I do what I did the last time and get through it OK.

My wife is a little more nervous about health things, so off she goes to the doctor. She did that with that respiratory thing and he told her, "Yeah, this virus seems be going around. Take Mucinex DM until it gets better." I had already been doing that, remembering the last chest cold I had.

The fever thing is my signal to drop into the clinic, although I'll give that a few hours, too, before driving there. I hate going to the doctor's office. Too many sick people in there.

[LizBeth]

5. "Too many sick people in there. " Right. Lol.

[cwydro]

6. I must be a helluva carrier.

Just never get sick (knock on wood).

I may have had the flu in 2003...bad cough, fever, exhaustion. Rolled through it pretty quickly though. Nothing since.