With the warmer weather in the northern hemisphere, many people are suffering from pollen allergies. Also called hay fever, this common condition affects millions of people worldwide during the spring, summer and fall months.
However, at the same time, COVID cases maintain their high numbers. While seasonal allergies are common to many people, there is an important commonality between the symptoms of COVID and hay fever. This can cause people to confuse COVID with allergies, thus exacerbating the spread of COVID in the community.
Today, due to vaccines and previous infections, we are seeing milder COVID symptoms compared to earlier periods of the epidemic. Of course, it’s certainly a good thing that people don’t usually get this sick from COVID. But at the same time, this can add to confusion between COVID and other diseases or allergies.
The latest data from the UK’s ZOE app, which tracks people’s self-reported symptoms of COVID, shows that the most commonly reported symptoms of COVID are now sore throat, followed by headache, cough, stuffy nose and runny nose. All of these symptoms can also affect people with pollen allergies. So it’s very likely that a person would qualify as the onset of their normal allergies despite having COVID.
But while there are many common symptoms, there are a few key symptoms that can help you differentiate between hay fever and COVID. For example, eye redness and itching are common symptoms in allergies, but are not among the symptoms of COVID. Similarly, when high fever or chills are not among the signs of pollen allergies, they are often encountered in cases of COVID. Diarrhea, vomiting and nausea are also among the early signs of COVID, but not associated with pollen allergies. Muscle aches are also among the symptoms associated with COVID but not associated with pollen allergies.
Of course, there are some differences between common symptoms such as coughing or runny nose, but it is not easy to generalize in this area as these are symptoms that may differ slightly from person to person.
If you have a pollen allergy, it’s a good idea to make sure your treatment is up to date and that you have the medicines you need at hand.
We need to keep in mind that the best way to prevent COVID infections is to wear vaccines and appropriate personal protection equipment (for example, masks).
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