New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Five ways COVID is different from the flu
Even as the coronavirus has infected more than 121,000 and killed more than 5,000 Connecticut residents, misconceptions remain about the severity of the disease.
Their symptoms may be similar, but doctors emphasize
that COVID-19 is much more serious than the flu.
“One of the misconceptions is that COVID is not a big deal, that it is just like the flu,” said Rick Martinello, medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Health.
But the immediate and longterm side effects of COVID-19 may be worse than the flu, and there is no vaccine yet to protect the public, doctors said.
Both viruses spread through respiratory droplets and have symptoms such as a fever, fatigue and body aches. Shortness of breath may be a sign that someone has COVID-19, rather than the flu, experts said.
Patients with COVID-19 may take longer to show symptoms than with the flu, where people usually develop symptoms one to four days after infection, according to the CDC. COVID-19 patients often get symptoms within five days, but as early as two days or as late as 14 days.
Side effects can range from mild to severe, although it is more common for COVID-19 patients to have more serious cases, experts said.
“COVID seems not to affect everyone equally,” said Dr. Patrick Troy, division chief of pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine for Hartford Hospital. “The flu — that’s a fairly equal offender.”
“It’s pretty rare to come to the hospital with influenza,” he added.
Death and serious illnesses
The United States has seen more than 275,000 COVID-19 deaths this year, according to John Hopkins University of Medicine. In comparison, the CDC estimated 24,000 to 62,000 flu deaths in 2019- 20.
“Nobody has ever seen anything like this,” said Dr. J. Samuel Pope, pulmonologist, medical director, critical care at Hartford Hospital. “This is definitely nothing like the flu.”
The elderly are at higher risk for developing serious cases of the flu and COVID-19. But larger numbers of people in their 30s to 50s with complications like diabetes and heart disease have still been hospitalized due to COVID-19.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 30- or 40-year- old or this number of 30- or 40-year-olds come in with influenza ever,” Troy said.
Contagious
Masks are effective in preventing people from getting both flu and COVID, which spread through respiratory droplets when people cough, sneeze or talk, doctors said.
“COVID-19 is probably more transmissible than influenza and, perhaps, certainly more than we realize,” Troy said.
Flu has been around for longer, so people have built up immunity to it.
“For COVID, we don’t have that, unfortunately, so it becomes extremely contagious,” said Dr. David Banach, of infectious diseases at UConn Health and hospital epidemiologist.
Serious side effects
The novel coronavirus may lead to inflammation, which affects patients’ lungs and can damage their kidneys and heart tissue, Martinello said. Blood clots are also common, he said.
“We know flu generates a lot of inflammation, but COVID is seemingly in the whole different ballpark,” said Martinello, adding researchers are still studying why.
But the extent of the patient’s exposure to the virus may be a factor in the severity of COVID-19.
“The amount that you’re infected with actually matters with COVID,” Pope said.
Long-term consequences
Since COVID-19 is a new virus, it is too early to know the long- term effects on patients, but they appear to be significant.
“It does seem like the severity of COVID would likely import a longer recovery and potentially more long- term consequences than seasonal flu,” Banach said.
Patients with severe cases of COVID-19 may be affected for much longer than those with the flu. Some have reported fatigue or differences in their thinking abilities for weeks to months, Martinello said.
“We have some patients who need to keep themselves out of work for a prolonged period of time because they know if they went back to work — because of how tired they are, because of how COVID has affected their thought process — they wouldn’t be able to do their work appropriately,” he said.
Treatment and vaccine
Hospital patients with COVID-19 often need to be connected to oxygen to help them breathe.
“We’ve never seen so many sick patients who require so much oxygen for long with influenza,” Pope said.
A COVID-19 vaccine is not yet publicly available, unlike for the flu. But doctors expect the COVID-19 vaccine could work better than the one for the flu.
“There is really a lot of optimism about these vaccines and how effective they can be,” Banach said.
Trials of the Connecticutbased Pfizer vaccine shows it to be 95 percent effective, whereas the flu vaccine reduces ones risk of getting that illness between 40 to 60 percent, according to the CDC.
But both vaccines appear to make the viruses less severe.
“That’s a really beneficial outcome,” Martinello said. “It can be quite helpful to have lesser illnesses than you might otherwise have.”