Cold and flu season starts with caution

Is it cold, flu, or COVID-19?

That question may plague us as we enter the months known in years past as cold and flu season. This year, we have gone through spring and summer and are headed into fall in a pandemic, proving that the coronavirus recognizes no season as a favorite or as a reprieve.

With COVID-19 still rampant, people are conscious of the dual threat that the flu brings into the mix, and health officials are urging everyone to get flu shots. The reminders are being stressed even more than in years past, as health care providers do not want to see hospitals taxed by an influx of flu patients while still dealing with cases of COVID.

Some scientists are speculating, however, that the flu season may not be as severe this year because of the precautions being taken against the coronavirus.

The journal Science reported that last March as the Southern Hemisphere braced for winter flu season, the South Africa National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) set up a plan to learn from the double whammy of flu and COVID-19. They hoped to study interactions between seasonal respiratory viruses and the virus which causes COVID-19. Does infection with one change a person’s risk of catching the other? How do people fare when they have both?

But the flu season — and the answers — never came. NICD’s Centre for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis logged only a single flu case in the months that typically would have produced on average 700 cases.

Few cases in the south might mean little infection spreading north, Science reported, noting however that scientists caution that the lockdowns and social distancing measures that were strictly in place at the time have since been relaxed in the U.S.

Without those measures in place during October, November, and December, flu will spread much more readily, scientists theorize.

Locally, doctors are concerned that people who may have COVID-19 will think they have the flu, and vice-versa, wreaking havoc with attempts to complete testing protocols and contact tracing.

Symptoms of the common cold, flu and COVID “cross over” according to Dr. Robert Czincila, chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery.

“The common coronavirus, which is what people get when they have the common cold, led to the virus with the pandemic as we’re seeing it now,” he said, creating similarities in symptoms.

Some things to keep in mind to help identify conditions, according to Czincila:

• With the common cold, the patient tends to not have an elevated temperature.

• With influenza you’ll have fever, sore throat, aches and pains, muscle soreness, cough and fatigue.

• A lot of those things are found in COVID-19, with fever, aches and pains, nausea, vomiting as well as coughing and shortness of breath.

• COVID-19 patients experience complete loss of ability to smell or taste things.

The medical concern, Czincila said, is that both influenza and coronavirus patients can develop pneumonia.

The concerns also elevate the importance of emphasis on vaccines. If a coronavirus vaccine became available tomorrow, Czincila said he would recommend people get both the coronavirus vaccine and the flu vaccine.

Meanwhile, the ER doctor emphasized “our hope is people are still following social distancing guidelines, using personal protective equipment, washing their hands and wearing masks and taking better care of themselves, so we would like to see a reduction in the number of flu cases.

“People are doing things they wouldn’t normally be doing in a normal flu season. There is the hope that since people are being diligent about protecting themselves and their loved ones that maybe we’ll see a lower infectivity rate this year because people will protect themselves a little better.”

As we enter this pandemic’s eighth month with new habits of handwashing, sanitizing, wearing masks and social distancing, there may be some secondary good to come of it. The aches, pains and inconvenience of dealing with the flu may be minimized.

Cold, flu or COVID-19? With proper care, the answer can be none of the above. Stay safe.