Why Covid-19 Has Made Us More Anxious About Catching a Cold

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Before the Covid-19 pandemic, itchy throats and runny noses were often considered as have a cold normal. However, since the pandemic hit, many people have been very alert and concerned about the viruses that cause colds, whether it’s a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, a flu that isn’t seasonal, or something else.

“During a pandemic, we used to run every available test because we wanted to know if it was Covid or if there was another diagnosis, but this practice has carried over into the post-Covid era,” said President of the College of Urgent Care Medicine, an emergency care physician in the United States. , Chris Chao.

Chao said that currently every patient who comes in with a sore throat wants strep, flu and Covid tests. However, many cases have no indication of the need to undergo testing.

The respiratory viral panel (RVP) can detect more than a dozen viruses at once, including influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. However, for healthy people with mild cold symptoms, doctors say such tests are not worth the money because the treatment is the same for most viruses.

In addition, test results, whether positive or negative, can be wrong. Most of the time, it’s an unreliable indicator of an active infection.

“Every test has its right place and time. But if the test is used inappropriately, you will get bad data, false negatives and false positives and the unintended consequences can be as dire as a missed diagnosis,” he said.

Emergency care doctor at Palo Alto Center Urgent Care, Jason Bae, said Covid-19 also makes many people forget that they need time to recover. Most patients of the 50 percent daily cases associated with colds wonder why they are still sick after a few days.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most colds take a week or more to heal. The American Lung Association says the average adult will get two to four colds per year, while young children will get six to eight.

Reported NBC, Monday (12/6/2023), Bae said immunity to respiratory viruses had diminished after years of isolation and wearing masks. It occurs especially among children.

“As a result, some people may be sick for a longer time because their immune system is still learning to cope,” he said.

Knowing which viruses cause colds is very helpful. Sometimes, it’s needed for immunocompromised people, including people with HIV, cancer, or chronic kidney disease. This is because viruses can turn into something more serious, such as a secondary bacterial infection.

Prof Ann Palmenberg, research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the excess concern around colds at the current stage of the pandemic stems largely from ignorance about how the microbiome and immune system interact with the environment. He said people should expose themselves to germs.

“Because that’s how you develop immunity, a lot of which is cross-protective with a large number of viruses,” he explained.

The good news, according to Palmenberg, is that the viruses that cause colds don’t behave any differently and haven’t changed at the molecular level since Covid-19 took hold. However, the infection, which is harmless to most people, can be disastrous for people with compromised immunity.