Omicron’s cold-like symptoms mean UK guidance ‘needs urgent update’ | Variable Omicron

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The most prevalent symptoms of the Omicron variant match those of the common cold, with calls for the government to update public health messages to include a greater number of possible Covid symptoms.

The most common symptoms reported among users of the Zoe Covid app were a runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and sore throat, according to the study’s latest analysis of confirmed cases in London.

Half of those who reported cold-like symptoms tested positive for Covid, with no apparent difference in symptoms reported for delta or omicron infection. But about half of infected users also reported “the three classic symptoms of fever, cough, or loss of smell or taste,” according to Zoe’s analysis.

Zoe’s analysis was supported by the Sage panel of scientific advisors at a meeting Thursday. The panel said there was “preliminary evidence” of changes in symptoms associated with omicron infection, with loss of taste or smell appearing to be “less frequent”.

Professor Tim Spector, chief scientist on the Zoe Covid study, said the public messaging needs to acknowledge that Covid symptoms will look like the common cold to many infected people.

Spector said he was shocked by what he called “misinformation” in the government’s latest stay-at-home guidance about Covid symptoms.

Zoe’s data clearly shows that the main symptoms are no longer a new persistent cough, high temperature, loss of taste or smell.

“For most people, a positive case of omicron is very similar to the common cold, starting with sore throat, runny nose and headache. Just ask a friend who has recently tested positive for it,” Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at Kings College London, told the Palestinian News Agency. positive”.

“We need to urgently change public messaging to save lives because half of the people with cold-like symptoms now have Covid.”

The NHS website currently lists ‘main symptoms of coronavirus’ as high fever; new and persistent cough including severe cough lasting more than an hour; Loss or change in the sense of smell or taste. She advises people with any of the three symptoms to get a PCR test as soon as possible and to self-isolate.

Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, speaking in his personal capacity, said there is evidence that the virus changes the way it behaves, in terms of the cells it has infected, leading to changes in symptoms.

Recent data, including a study from Hong Kong, found that Omicron was less able to infect deep lung tissue but more able to infect upper airway tissue.

“It appears to be heading toward a virus that infects the upper respiratory tract and therefore adapts to be more transmissible in part because it changes the types of cells it infects,” Openshaw said.

This would go along with the production of more common symptoms such as those of the common cold. These laboratory studies support what the Zoe app is telling us.”

Openshaw said it would be “reasonable” to update the list of Covid symptoms: “The near-lockdown has been awful for colds, they are struggling to survive. So if you have a cold right now, there’s a 50% chance it’s actually Covid.”

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