Spring is here again – and that means that there may be some allergies on the horizon. In fact, local reports from Florida and North Carolina suggest that people are already experiencing allergy symptoms with the return of spring.
How to tell the difference
In August 2020, the National Jewish Health website released a symptom analysis to help people understand whether they have allergies, the common cold, the flu or COVID-19.
The list of allergy symptoms includes:
- Symptoms begin gradually
- Symptoms last during the allergy season
- Dry cough
- Headaches
- Itchy eyes
- Nasal congestion
- Dripping nose
- To sneeze
- Sometimes fatigue and weakness
- Sometimes loss of taste or smell
- Sometimes sore throat
- Sometimes shortness of breath
Now we know a little more about the symptoms of COVID-19. Here is an official list of the symptoms of COVID-19 based on information from Google.
- 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
- Diarrhea
Can you stop allergies?
Dr. Lisa Lockerd Maragakis, senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins Health Systems in Baltimore, Maryland, wrote in the fall of 2020 that you too cannot escape seasonal allergies.
- “Unfortunately, the short answer is: you can’t,” she wrote. “If you get any kind of illness, the best thing to do is to call your doctor, explain your symptoms and self-quarantine until you know what is going on.”
- “As some symptoms of coronavirus are similar to those of bronchitis, the common cold, the flu and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), this year a test is likely to be needed to tell the difference,” she wrote.