[ad_1]
It is impossible to know without proof. Flu and COVID-19 have similar symptoms, you may need to get tested to find out what is making you miserable.
Body aches, sore throat, fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and headaches are symptoms shared by the two.
One difference? People with the flu generally feel sickest during the first week of illness. With COVID-19, people may feel worse during the second or third week and may be sicker for a longer period.
Another difference: COVID-19 is more likely than the flu to cause loss of taste or smell. But not everyone experiences that symptom, so it is not a reliable way to tell viruses apart.
That leaves the evidence, which will become more important as the flu season increases this fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Doctors will need to know the results of the tests to determine the best treatment.
It’s also possible to become infected with both viruses at the same time, said Dr. Daniel Solomon, an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Whether you get tested for one or both viruses may depend on how readily the tests are available and which viruses are circulating where you live, he said.
“Right now we are not seeing community transmission of influenza, so generalized testing for influenza is not yet recommended,” Solomon said.
Both flu and coronavirus are spread through droplets from the nose and mouth. Both can spread before people know they are sick. The flu has a shorter incubation period, which means it can take one to four days after infection to feel ill, compared to coronavirus, which can take two to 14 days from infection to symptoms.
On average, COVID-19 is more contagious than the flu. But many people with COVID-19 do not transmit the virus to anyone, while some people transmit it to many others. These “super spread events” are more common with COVID-19 than with the flu, Solomon said.
Flu prevention begins with an annual flu vaccine tailored to the circulating strains of the flu virus. Health officials would like a record number of people to get vaccinated against the flu this year so that hospitals are not overwhelmed by two epidemics at once.
There is no vaccine for COVID-19 yet, although several candidates are in the final stages of testing.
Precautions against COVID-19 (masks, social distancing, hand washing) also slow the spread of the flu, so health officials hope that continued surveillance could lessen the severity of this year’s flu season.
