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The manâs condition was already dire when he arrived at the hospital in Belgrade, Serbia. He was coughing, short of breath, and had a high fever of 39.2°C. Doctors and nurses quickly tested the oxygen levels in his blood â they were way down. Although they intubated the man, hooking his lungs up to a mechanical ventilator, he died just a few hours later.
It is a sequence of events that, sadly, has unfolded time and time again throughout the pandemic. Except that this man died on February 5, 2020, before any Covid-19 deaths were officially confirmed in Europe. Before the name âCovid-19â even existed. Back then, the manâs doctors had no idea what had killed him. They put the fatality down to pneumonia of an unknown cause.
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