Is It My Allergies or COVID?

COVID-19 and allergies have a lot of similarities. 

During the winter, illnesses tend to spike, and COVID is no exception. It can be difficult to determine if you’re sick and contagious or if you’re simply battling allergies and safe to be in contact with others. 

Our team here at Clover Internal Medicine examines allergies and COVID and what the similarities and differences are between them so you can begin to solve what’s causing your symptoms.

Taking a closer look at COVID and allergies

COVID is an infectious respiratory disease that stems from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and it’s able to spread from person to person through close contact. This most commonly takes place when respiratory droplets from an infected person who coughs or sneezes land on a surface or someone else.

Allergies happen when your immune system reacts to a foreign substance that typically isn’t harmful. This can be pollen, pet dander, mold, or dust mites. All of these allergens can cause allergic reactions that have similar symptoms to a virus like COVID. 

How are they similar?

While COVID and allergies are caused by different things, they can often have similar symptoms which is why they’re so easily confused with one another.

COVID and allergies both share the following symptoms:

• Runny nose
• Fatigue
• Cough 
• Sneezing

Both of these things also have a potential risk of pink eye or conjunctivitis.

How are they different?

Despite these two health problems being so similar, there are some key differences between them.

Allergies aren’t contagious and typically aren’t managed well with over-the-counter pain medications and cold medicines like COVID is. Allergies are better managed with decongestant sprays and antihistamines. If you also have symptoms like an itchy nose and eyes, that’s going to point more to allergies than it is to COVID.

COVID, on the other hand, has quite a few more symptom possibilities, such as a fever and body aches, vomiting and diarrhea, or even loss of taste and smell senses. COVID can also cause shortness of breath and difficulty breathing while allergies don’t typically cause those symptoms.

Next steps

If you still don’t know what you’re dealing with, our team at Clover Internal Medicine can help get down to the bottom of it. We offer both COVID testing and allergy testing so you can know for sure what’s causing your symptoms.

To learn more or to schedule an appointment with us, call our office at 682-708-0982 in Fort Worth, Texas, or use our online booking tool today.