What’s coronavirus or just flu?
Loss of taste is one key
That runny nose you have could be a symptom of COVID-19. It could also be caused by anything from allergies, to a common cold or flu, to just plain dry air.
It’s confusing, to say the least, that many of the main symptoms of the coronavirus — fever, cough, fatigue, headache, sore throat, congestion — overlap with issues caused by other sorts of ailments, particularly those common in the winter months.
But one that should immediately be a cause for concern is a change in smell or taste.
“These days it would be very suggestive of the disease,” Boston University Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr. Davidson Hamer said.
The other true key to figuring out whether to worry about your case of the sniffles is by keeping a close eye on any possible exposures. Hamer stressed that selfmonitoring symptoms and keeping track of any potential exposures are more important than ever.
“A runny nose, stuffed nose, sore throat, low-grade fever, muscles aches — all of those are nonspecific,” Hamer said. “But if you know that you’ve been in close contact with someone who’s a close contact or infected, that should trigger alarms.”
One important difference between the coronavirus and the flu that people can check for is the speed of the onset of symptoms. Typically, a person with the flu will
If you have symptoms ‘but you know that you’ve been in close contact with someone who’s a close contact or infected, that should trigger alarms.’ DR. DAVIDSON HAMER Boston University Infectious Diseases specialist
develop symptoms one to four days after infection, whereas a COVID-19 patient could develop symptoms anywhere from two to 14 days after contracting it.
Symptoms that overlap between the coronavirus and the flu include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, sore throat, runny nose, headache and muscle ache, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overlap can make it complicated to know what might be caused by COVID-19 and whether you should get tested.
Though officials were advising people against testing last spring when swabs were scarce, they’re encouraging it now.
“There’s a lot more places people can drive through or stand in line,” Hamer said. “It’s important to know because there are some people who will go on to develop more moderate to severe disease and it’s important to be self-monitoring for those symptoms. And if somebody’s infected they should be isolated.”
CDC guidance says the coronavirus spreads easier than the flu and it can also take longer before people show symptoms and people can be contagious for longer.
Most people with flu are contagious for about a day before the onset of symptoms, and it is possible for coronavirus patients to spread the illness two days before symptoms begin and at least 10 days after, authorities say.
There were more than 39 million flu illnesses in the United States from October 2019 to April 2020, according to the CDC, and adults have an average of two to three colds a year.