If your head is stuffy or your throat is sore, how can you tell whether you have a cold or flu or COVID? It’s a question many are asking with the arrival of flu season. NBC News senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres joins TODAY to break it all down. “If you start getting sick, essentially you have to assume it’s COVID unless proven otherwise,” he says.
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Is It A Cold, Or Flu, Or COVID? How To Tell The Difference
welcome back say you just woke up and your head feels a little stuffy or maybe your throat’s a little bit sore or perhaps you just sneezed is it a cold is it the flu or is it co for the record we all tested negative that applies to none of us here but it is the question that does have everybody on edge these days as we’re now starting to see the flu season arrive new CDC data shows that the number of states with high flu activity has now more than doubled over the last week and Hospital admissions for the flu are up by 34% NPC senior medical correspondent Dr John Torres is now here to break it all down for us Dr T nice to see you help us out here a lot of people are concerned about this the way things are looking what is the latest on the flu situation across the country right now and what really are your chances of Contracting it versus Co and Peter great to see all of you as well and hopefully you had a great holiday season so far but one of the things you have to realiz is right now the flu season is just starting to ramp up last year it wasn’t much this year we’re starting to see some cases but we’re just at the beginning of that flu season and we know that covid cases are accelerating dramatically right now so if you start getting sick essentially you have to assume it’s covid unless proven otherwise and by that I mean make sure you isolate yourself get a test to make sure it’s not covid and then you can start looking at the flu and cold as the season goes on the flu might become more common as well as the cold but right now Co is the name of the game Peter Dr Tores we’ve all been reporting on the strain on hospitals given the increase in cases and of of course given staff shortages so how much of a threat is the flu season to hospitals given that they’re already overstressed and Kristen even in the regular season without the pandemic hospitals are always right on the edge especially during flu season being pushed over to where they can’t handle the patient load that they have you put Co on top of that that makes it even more likely and if you remember last year we kept our fingers cross the flu wouldn’t be a bad season because our hospitals were super strained we’re at that point right now so the flu is just going to put them over the Tipping Point and remember last year when we had lot lack of ventilators we had lack of medicine lack of Staff we could get back to that point again and that’s why we have to be careful this year and make sure we protect ourselves from the flu and from covid with the vaccines we have out there so we can help ourselves but also help our hospital system which helps everybody else hey Dr John it’s Jacob you know we’re all thinking about our kids and I remember last year I think there was only one pediatric flu death uh recorded total and 200 the year before they’re now expecting I think that number to come up again this year can you explain why that is the difference between last year and this year and right Jacob last year we didn’t have any flu and I surprised everybody I talked to doctors who said they didn’t see a single flu case in their ER and as a ER doc I never had a season like that but we’re still towards the beginning of the flu season the CDC says it’s starting to see a slow but steady increase so far it’s been in children and young adults and like you mentioned one pediatric death last year so far this year we’ve had two pediatric deaths but right now now Omron which is the variant we know is highly transmissible that’s again more likely you’re going to have that so get tested if you feel sick don’t just assume it’s the fluid of the cold because we’re going to start seeing more cold coming up but for right now Omron is the one we have to worry about so doctor let’s talk about the main differences between that new Omron variant and the flu right now a lot of people who get Omron who get Co right now say it feels like a bad cold is there a market difference between the two and there are a little bit of differences you know with the previous Co variants we have including Delta the main sign was that loss of taste or smell people complained about that we’re not seeing that as much with Omron even though that’s becoming more dominant across the country but people are reporting night sweats which is a very strange symptom that they say they’re having the other thing the onset of the symptoms and with cold and with covid it seems to be a slower buildup of symptoms you just get them over days the flu hits you right away you get a fever stuffy nose body aches and if you’ve ever had the flu you know you get to that point where can’t get out of bed um you know let’s go through some of the symptoms of all these here if you look at it here cold symptoms again runny nose stuffy nose sore throat cough congestion those are the main ones with the flu you’re going to get fever cough sore throat run your stuffy nose body aches and the headache and then with the covid symptoms especially Delta headaches sore throat runny nose fever body aches those are the biggest ones and with Omron cough fatigue Tire Ness congestion and runny nose you notice there’s a lot of overlap in those symptoms and that’s why it can be so hard to tell the difference between all of them but there are a few differences Dr Torres when should you actually get a test or just write it out and Kristen one of the biggest things is you want to avoid self- diagnosing that means if you’re displaying any symptoms you want to go ahead and get tested again assume it’s co until proven otherwise go ahead and get a flu test and depending on test and depending on your symptoms you can also get tested for the flu at the same time and not trying to complicate things more but we’re also in strep throat season so you might need to get that test as well so avoid people in general if you’re sick but if you have covid obviously there’s some strict protocols and like you mentioned those have changed a little bit for isolation so you do need to isolate longer and inform some close contacts about the SPL spread of it until you get a diagnosis of whether you have that or not what about the vaccine uh Doc is it too late already to get the flu vaccine if you haven’t gotten it yet I know a lot of people are worried about that no it’s not too late at all it takes a couple weeks to take effect much like the covid vaccine and the other vaccines that we get and so you can get it right now like I mentioned we’re at the beginning of the flu season so getting it right now can protect you if it hits us hard in January February time frame but you want to go ahead and get it now again it’s going to make you feel a little under the weather for a day much like the covid vaccine but it’s your best protection might not protect you 100% but it can keep you out of the hospital and all right doctor let’s say it’s your turn you got one of these things what’s your best treatment what do you do so your best treatment is to go ahead and get over the- counter treatment treat it at home as best you can and so you want to use acetaminophen or Ibuprofen that’s for fevers and body aches for stuffy nose and over-the-counter decongestion like guenin which is muin X hydration and electrolytes extremely important plenty of rest sleep is one of your biggest AIDS you can use right now that get let your body recuperate and regenerate itself so it can protect you and it keeps your immune system strong and if your symptoms get worse or you have difficulty breathing in particular remember we’re in the middle of covid season which is a respiratory illness you want to go ahead and see a doctor Dr Torres thank you so much you just saved all of America a co-pay today we appreciate thanks Dr Torres great info as always hey thanks for watching our YouTube channel find your favorite recipes celebrity interviews uplifting stories shop our favorite deals and so much more with the Today app download it now
