Coronavirus: Steve Wozniak first feared he and wife were 'patient zero', but now he says it was a 'joke'
In a bizarre claim, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he and his wife Janet may have been “patient zero” for the spread of the novel coronavirus in the US. However, this turned out to be a false alarm after his wife confirmed that she had a sinus infection.
On Monday, March 2, Wozniak tweeted, “Checking out Janet’s bad cough. Started January 4. We had just returned from China and may have both been patient zero in the US (@ West Coast Sports Institute in Santa Clara, CA).”
Wozniak's post was originally written in a check-in on the Swarm app, which suggested that he and his wife were at the West Coast Sports Institute in Santa Clara, US.
However, later his wife reportedly told USA TODAY that she had been diagnosed with a sinus infection.
Late on Monday night, he also told USA TODAY that they were not tested for coronavirus.
Both Wozniak and his wife had sore throats and coughs when they returned from Southeast Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong) on January 4. After the trip, he was scheduled to attend some events in Las Vegas, but could only attend a few.
“We immediately drove part way to Vegas that night and I emailed people in Las Vegas where I was scheduled for about 5 or 6 events, telling them it should be no go and I was sure I was sick. There was no coronavirus news or travel restrictions yet. I did make a couple of appearances in Vegas but I couldn't speak except nearly with laryngitis. We canceled everything else to head home but I couldn't move out of bed for 2 days. I did tell everyone that I was sick and stayed away from almost all in Vegas,” he said, reports CNET.
He described it as the worst flu of their lives and that when they went to the hospital, they were told it was not an “American flu.”
“This was the worst flu of our lives. Because we had GI symptoms, it may have been some other virulent flu. Janet was coughing up blood and went to the hospital and they said it was no American flu. We have not been able to get tested in this country. Had our return from SE 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.
Wozniak told CNET he had notified the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but they just came back with a “boilerplate letter saying to wash our hands.”
“There was no test for this COVID-19 then. 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,” he told USA TODAY.
As far as the patient zero comment is concerned, Wozniak said: “It was kind of a joke.”
"I think that our GI symptoms better fit some other flu because you rarely hear of that with COVID-19. 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,” he said.
Meanwhile, six people have died in the US so far from COVID-19, and over 100 have been infected with the virus. Four of the six people who have died in the US were residents of Life Care Center, located in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.