Pandemic from 1889-1891 commonly called Russian flu might have been earlier coronavirus

Harald Brüssow, Lutz Brüssow

DOI:  

https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13889

PDF: https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1751-7915.13889

Summary

Contemporary medical reports from Britain and Germany on patients suffering from a pandemic infection between 1889 and 1891, which was historically referred to as the Russian flu, share a number of characteristics with COVID-19. Most notable are aspects of multisystem affections comprising respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms including loss of taste and smell perception; a protracted recovery resembling long covid and pathology observations of thrombosis in multiple organs, inflammation and rheumatic affections. As in COVID-19 and unlike in influenza, mortality was seen in elderly subjects while children were only weakly affected. Contemporary reports noted trans-species infection between pet animals or horses and humans, which would concur with a cross-infection by a broad host range bovine coronavirus dated by molecular clock arguments to an about 1890 cross-species infection event.

https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1751-7915.13889