The mayor of Belleville is making a startling yet uncorroborated claim that he contracted the coronavirus in New Jersey in November, two months before the first confirmed U.S. case in Washington State.
Mayor Michael Melham said he recently asked his doctor, days after a routine physical, to test his blood for COVID-19 antibodies — and got a positive finding on Wednesday.
The first case of the coronavirus in the United States was announced January 21. New Jersey’s first coronavirus case wasn’t diagnosed until early March. Melham, though, said he is convinced he was infected four months earlier. He recounted becoming ill while in Atlantic City attending the New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference.
“I was definitely feeling sick when I was there, and fought my way through it,” he told NJ Advance Media on Thursday.
After returning home Nov. 21 from the convention, Melham said a doctor diagnosed his worsening symptoms — including a 102-degree fever, chills, hallucinations and a sore throat that ended up lasting for three weeks — as a bad case of the flu.
“I have never been sicker in my entire life,” Melham said, though he acknowledged that he did not have the respiratory problems often associated with the coronavirus.
Now fully recovered, the mayor sent out a press release on Thursday declaring he had the coronavirus in November.
“My fear is that there are many who dismissed a potentially positive coronavirus diagnosis as a bad flu,” he stated.
Asked about the mayor’s statements, the state health department declined comment. A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Murphy did not immediately respond to a message.
There has been much discussion, from Facebook posts to medical study groups, in recent weeks on whether the coronavirus arrived in the U.S. sooner than believed, buttressed by reports of some especially aggressive flu cases.
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told USA Today in March that “we will probably find that this disease was here earlier than we thought.”
Benjamin also said, though, that it is “plausible but not likely” that the coronavirus arrived as early as November and December, according to the newspaper. And even then, early cases would have likely been linked to travel to China and not widespread, he said.
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In a phone interview, Melham conceded he does not know he had the coronavirus.
“Nobody can be sure,” he said.
“But I am nearly certain, for two reasons: I have never been that gravely ill in my adult life, and the antibodies that I have are the longer-term ones, not the most recent ones,” he said.
His test result showed the IgG antibody, which according to Science News lasts longer than the IgM antibody that typically is produced about a week after infection.
Melham said he has done no traveling in recent months, other than a late-January trip to Puerto Rico. He lives alone.
He said his flu diagnosis in November was done over the phone, rather than via a test.
“They told me it was the flu, and to ride it out, and that’s what I did,” he said, adding that he never got the flu shot.
The issue came up during his annual physical.
“My doctor only had 10 of these blood tests at his disposal and was willing to give me one because of my daily work with the public,” he said.
He said he did not have to pay for the test, but is not sure if his insurance was charged.
Melham drew notice in September upon installing a billboard with his portrait overlooking Route 21, with a message calling on the state to provide water filters to Belleville residents as the city confronted lead issues related to the problems in neighboring Newark.
A registered independent, Melham said he is skeptical of the official U.S. timeline on the coronavirus.
“I have never believed this just came in January. I know many people like me who were gravely ill from November into December,” he said.
He said he is urging others to get tested for COVID-19 antibodies, and is hopeful that their plasma may someday help with live-saving treatment.
“It is my hope that this antibody testing becomes more readily available. More and more testing is needed, so that more and more plasma can be gleaned to hopefully save many lives,” he said.
As of Thursday, there were at least 118,652 coronavirus cases in New Jersey, and 7,228 deaths.
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Rob Jennings may be reached at [email protected].
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