There’s been a lot of confusion over cold versus COVID symptoms since the advent of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic, it was easy to brush off symptoms like a runny nose, cough, and congestion as just the common cold. But now, those symptoms can send anyone into a panic spiral of worrying that they have COVID-19.
Enter the latest COVID-19 variant, omicron, and you have an even more complicated picture. Medical doctor and Wits University Associate lecturer Dr Nthabiseng Kumalo advises that omicron symptoms tend to present themselves fairly quicker than those of previous variants. “Fatigue, congestion and a cough are amongst the top three omicron symptoms,” says Dr Kumalo.
Real talk? “There are no easy ways to tell the difference,” says Lewis Nelson, MD, the chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Each illness can have its own range of severity, he points out, leaving a lot of grey area.
READ MORE: Are COVID-19 Outcomes Worse For People Living With HIV?
A common cold and COVID-19 share some symptoms, but there are differences in symptoms, and their impact on you. Here’s how to tell them apart—and when you need to see a doctor.
What’s the difference between the common cold and COVID-19?
You probably have this memorised by now, but it never hurts to go over it again: COVID-19 is a disease caused by the respiratory virus SARS-CoV-2, according to the CDC. The virus is thought to mainly spread through respiratory droplets that are produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks.
The common cold can actually be caused by many different viruses, the CDC says. These include rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, adenoviruses, and coronaviruses—excluding SARS-CoV-2, of course. The viruses that cause colds can also spread from infected people to others through the air and close personal contact.
But how serious these infections are can be very different. “COVID, if unvaccinated, can lead to hospitalisation or worse,” Dr. Nelson says. “Clearly COVID is readily spread, and it can lead to more severe disease, primarily in the lungs at first.”
READ MORE: The To 3 Cancers Affecting Women In SA — And How Much They Cost To Treat
“The best way to think about cold viruses is that they’re pretty harmless,” adds Timothy Murphy, MD, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “We all get the common cold, sometimes several times a year. People get through colds just fine as opposed to COVID-19, which can cause a systemic illness and be far more dangerous.”
What are the common symptoms of a cold and COVID-19?
Common symptoms of a cold can include the following:
- Runny nose
- Sore throat
- Coughing
- Sneezing
- Headaches
- Body aches
The CDC lists these as the most common symptoms of COVID-19:
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhoea
READ MORE: 4 Ways to Support Healthy Ageing
So, how can you tell if you have a cold or COVID-19?
Dr. Murphy says it’s hard for even doctors to know just from examining you and hearing about your symptoms if you have a cold or COVID-19. There is one symptom, though, that makes it more likely that you have COVID-19: losing your sense of taste and smell.
“Though that does occur sometimes with colds, it’s far more likely with COVID,” he says. “With colds, you would typically get really stuffy first before you lose your sense of smell. With COVID, many people just lose their sense of smell altogether.”
Still, plenty of people have COVID-19 and never lose their sense of taste and smell. Given that we’re still living through a global pandemic and COVID-19 is practically everywhere, Dr. Murphy says it’s important to at least consider that you could have the virus if you develop even mild symptoms.
Dr. Nelson agrees. “Anyone with viral illness symptoms, particularly if they’re not COVID vaccinated, should wear a mask and take a COVID test,” he says.
*
