Razor sore throat, fevers, chills. Some social media users are claiming that their current COVID-19 infections are more severe than previous COVID infections; some even claim it’s the worst they’ve ever felt.
This is alarming, given that COVID-19 cases remain high in many parts of the country. No one wants to hear that they may get sick with COVID — and with a more intense version at that.
But is that true? Are the current circulating COVID strains actually causing more severe illness across the board?
Here’s what doctors say:
The circulating COVID-19 variants are not making people sicker than previous variants.
Stratus, or XFG, is the current predominant variant in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. This strain is a member of the Omicron family of viruses, said Dr. Mark Burns, an associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Louisville.
“And these Omicron variants have all had a couple things in common,” Burns explained. “Number one, they’re highly transmissible, but secondly, they’re not nearly as severe as previous variants have been.”
Previous variants caused symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, in addition to more hospitalizations and deaths.
“Looking at what you consider being markers for severe infection, we’re not seeing an increase … beyond what would be expected, in hospitalizations. We’re not seeing more patients in the ICU,” said Dr. Donald Dumford, an infectious disease physician at Cleveland Clinic Akron General in Ohio. “Really, right now, I think where the pandemic is, because we have a lot of herd immunity, we have a very, very low number of severe infections that really hasn’t been going up.”
This doesn’t mean someone with a bad COVID infection doesn’t have it worse than they did last year. That is possible, but that doesn’t mean this strain is any more concerning than any of the previous strains.
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The symptoms are largely the same as previous COVID variants.
While people aren’t ending up in the hospital more or coming down with more severe infection from this strain, some people are reporting a more bothersome symptom this September.
“The one thing that I’ve heard and the one thing we’ve seen is that it seems like this particular variant that’s circling right now seems to cause worse sore throat than other variants have,” Dumford said. “We’ve had a lot of people describe that they have [a] razor blade type of sensation in the back of the throat, so more severe sore throat.”
Burns said sore throat has been a symptom of COVID infections since the start of the pandemic. Someone could get reinfected with COVID and end up with a worse sore throat, but that doesn’t mean this symptom didn’t exist years ago, he explained.
As anyone who has had COVID multiple times knows, no two infections are exactly the same, but the constellation of symptoms associated with COVID right now are the same as what they’ve been in the past.
You may experience cough, sore throat, congestion, fever, muscle aches and chills, said Dumford.
Vaccination is an important way to prevent hospitalization and death from COVID.
“First and foremost, you want to stay up to date on your vaccination … that’s the most important thing, and in particular, the latest COVID vaccine,” Burns said.
This isn’t easy to do right now, as COVID shot guidelines are confusing. The shot is only recommended for people 65 and older and younger people with an underlying condition that puts them at high risk of disease. Last fall, the shots were available to everyone 6 months and older.
Nonetheless, the shots are available to some people. If you want to see if you’re eligible, talk to your primary care doctor or a pharmacist about the COVID-19 vaccine eligibility rules in your state.
The shots also help prevent long COVID, research shows.
It’s also the time of year for flu shots, which can protect you and your loved ones from that respiratory virus.
If you do feel sick, you should take a COVID test and isolate from others.
“If you have symptoms, you really need to get tested because it’s really difficult to tell. Does a person have a common cold? Do they have COVID? Do they have the flu? Do they have RSV? It’s really difficult to tell,” Burns said.
If you test positive for COVID, there are antiviral treatments available.
No matter what illness you have, you should isolate, Dumford said, adding that while you may have a mild case of COVID or the flu, a loved one could get a much more severe infection, which makes staying away from others important.
“The thing is with COVID and the flu and also RSV is healthy people don’t often end up in the hospital because of those, but we see a lot of hospitalizations in those at-risk populations,” Dumford said, such as young children and older people.
To protect yourself from COVID and any respiratory illness, there are additional measures you can take.
“I always refer back to the old public health mitigating measures, such as washing your hands, make sure you’re in areas with good ventilation, social distancing when appropriate, and if you’re really concerned and you’re in a crowded indoor space, it’s still OK to wear an N95 mask,” Burns said.