Cold Case of the Year
Common Cold, Flu, Allergies, or COVID-19?
Farheen Khan (Get Well Clinic)

As the nights come earlier and the mornings become cooler, some of us have already started to experience sniffles, sneezing, and sore throats. Each year, as we start to feel the onset of these symptoms, we ask ourselves, “Do I have a cold, the flu or are my allergies just acting up again?” This year however, we have an additional candidate - a much more severe one too - to add to our list of potential diagnoses: the novel (or not so novel anymore) COVID-19.
This new coronavirus strain can cause severe illness in certain groups of people including the elderly population and individuals with underlying health conditions (i.e. heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, etc.) (CDC, 2020a). There is no cure or vaccine for COVID-19 at the moment, and thus social distancing and other preventative measures are extremely important to ensure its containment (WHO, 2020).