I am going to do keep a close eye. This really has to be something else. I have not had a realistic exposure. It seriously fly against all we know to be true if I had it. I have sanitized my groceries. Btw.
Pollen count is high but it usually does not bother me.
Could be dry air, as others have said. Are you taking any decongestants? I have a dry cough too, but that's become normal for me (had it since December, worsened in January, is slightly worse now). It's worse at night.
I spent the night researching what's known about the time between exposure and first symptom. Data is sketchy. Most studies (where the transmission date is known because it came from a specific person) say 6-10 days, up to 14-18 days. It also looks like people who have been exposed do not shed significant amounts of virus until about 4-6 days in.
Then once symptoms start, it's 2-28 days of symptoms, during which the person is contagious. Most people are contagious for 10 days after symptoms start, and not a lot is known about what happens next (but a month out, most people no longer have active viral shedding - just RNA fragments). That one month data is extremely conservative, some studies seem to show that most people stop shedding a transmissible form of the disease about 48-72 hours after their fever ends.
20-50% of people never have symptoms but are still transmitting for some unknown period of time, thought to be around 2-3 weeks, but clearly much less for some people.
It's all this uncertainty that's so hard.
If you have cough suppressant (dextromethorphan), there are quite a few recommendations that you go ahead and take it, to avoid irritation to your respiratory tract. I donno, not a medical doctor, am sitting here looking at my bottle of it right now. Guess I'll try it. Apparently I cough in my sleep, so constantly irritating my windpipe and bronchial tubes.
