Has The Common Cold Gotten Worse?

In the post-pandemic era, we’ve all welcomed a new intruder into our lives. A tiny hypochondriac has taken up residence in the corners of our brains, one who doesn’t seem to be leaving any time soon. Mere fits of coughing aren’t just ordinary coughs anymore. Every small symptom is now perceived as a manifestation of a deeper, undiagnosed disease. Or so we convince ourselves.

As we leave the relentless waves of the pandemic behind us—and continue to learn to coexist with the hypochondriac in our brains—it is worthwhile to ask (for the sake of the tiny hypochondriac, of course): have innocuous illnesses, like common colds, actually become more dangerous after the pandemic?

All over the world, people report feeling sicker these days. What used to be a simple little common cold before the pandemic now feels like one of the twelve labors of Hercules to endure. Yet… are we justified in feeling this way? Let’s see what the experts say.

Expert’s Corner

It’s a unanimous consensus within the scientific community: the common cold is pretty much the same. It hasn’t developed into a super nefarious variant of itself; the common cold has remained unchanged and isn’t any more infectious or dangerous than it was before the pandemic.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University, opined that people may just have forgotten what common colds feel like. “All of us have forgotten about what common colds used to be like, and we’re getting them now again,” He said in an article published by ABCNews.

Think about it: during the pandemic, we wore masks and washed our hands multiple times a day (and for 30 seconds or more, no less). Essentially, many of us hunkered down and lived in sterile bubbles. We had little to no exposure to the usual suite of viruses that caused illnesses like the common cold. It’s also important to remember that we live in a world that isn’t limited by social distancing anymore.

Additionally, when we take into account the fact that there are over 200 viruses out there that can cause the common cold, it makes even more sense as to why common colds have us shaking in our boots now. In the same article published by ABCNews, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at UCSF, explained that immunity acquired against one particular common cold-causing virus does not guarantee immunity against the other 200 plus common cold-causing viruses out there.

According to Dr. Chin-Hong, “Being exposed to one doesn’t mean that you’re going to be protected by another one that comes along.”

Common cold-causing viruses aren’t more infectious now. However, the tiny hypochondriac in your mind isn’t just placated yet. Even if we aren’t more susceptible to the common cold now, why do the symptoms seem worse?

The Answer

The general symptoms of the common cold include (but are not limited to) frequent sneezing and nasal congestion. These two uncomfortable symptoms are accompanied by a scratchy or sore throat as well; however, sometimes in more intense cases, symptoms like fever, chills, and body aches can also occur. Usually, these symptoms last anywhere between a week or two.

So, to sum it up, the common cold has always been awful. It’s always made us miserable and weak! So, take a deep breath and rewind back to the wise words of Dr. William Schaffner: we’ve just forgotten what the symptoms were while we were spared for a while.

Conclusion

It’s not just the common cold either. Cases of strep throat , the flu , and even other viral illnesses like RSV have all been on the rise since the pandemic waned. For example, back in the winter of 2022, flu and RSV cases shot up in adults and children alike.

If you, like millions of others all over the world, are miserable with what seems like the worst case of the common cold in the world, take solace in the fact that you’re not alone!