Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak suggested that he and his wife could have contracted coronavirus nearly two months ago — and quipped that they both may have even been “patient zero” in the US.
The 69-year-old millionaire tech entrepreneur told USA Today that he and Janet Wozniak came down with “the worst flu of our lives” after visiting Southeast Asia in January.
“Checking out Janet’s bad cough,” Wozniak tweeted Monday. “Started Jan. 4. We had just returned from China and may have both been patient zero in U.S.”
Both had sore throats and coughs upon their return to the US, Wozniak told the paper. He canned some of his planned appearances in Las Vegas after the trip and lost his voice, he said.
“We canceled everything else to head home, but I couldn’t move out of bed for two days,” he added. “I did tell everyone that I was sick and stayed away from almost all in Vegas.”
Janet was coughing up blood — and went to the hospital, where doctors said that the illness “was no American flu,” he added.
“We have not been able to get tested [for coronavirus] in this country,” he said. “Had our return from Southeast Asia been today, we’d certainly have been tested and quarantined, with the symptoms we had. But it wasn’t treated as important back then.”
He said he reached out to the CDC, but received a form letter reminding the couple to wash their hands.
“There was no test for this COVID-19 then,” he told the paper. “Eventually, they did have a test, but you could only get it done through the CDC and they wouldn’t test people like myself and Janet, who were well past symptoms.”
Janet later confirmed to USA Today that she had been diagnosed with a sinus infection.
Her husband called his “patient zero” reference “kind of a joke,” adding that the couple’s gastrointestinal symptoms were not characteristic of coronavirus.
“I think that our GI symptoms better fit some other flu, because you rarely hear of that with COVID-19,” he said. “But there’s no way to find out until we can get a test, and now it’s two months later, and a month past symptoms.”
Symptoms of the illness, which appear two to 14 days after exposure, include a cough, fever and shortness of breath, according to the CDC.
Within the US, more than 100 people have been infected with COVID-19 in at least 11 states. Six people have died in Washington state, including four elderly residents from the same nursing home.