While coronavirus has for a short time been assumed to peak in the colder months of November to March, hay fever is a condition very much linked to the warmer months. However, due to the evolution of COVID-19, there are some cases of people assuming they have hay fever when they actually have Covid and vice versa. As a result of this crossover, there are concerns the wave could be larger than is being reported. Furthermore, scientists are divided over whether one symptom of hayfever could also be a symptom of COVID-19.
What is known for certain is there is some overlap in the symptoms of hay fever and COVID-19.
Symptoms of COVID-19 currently are:
• A high temperature
• A new, continuous cough
• A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling tired and exhausted
• Headache
• Sore throat
• Blocked or runny nose
• Loss of appetite
• Diarrhoea
• Feeling or being sick.
Meanwhile, people with hay fever also experience sneezing, a sore throat, and a runny nose.
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Speaking about the growing confusion Professor Azeem Majeed of Imperial College London said: “I’ve had a few patients, and also some colleagues as well, who thought they just had hay fever, but when they tested it transpired they actually had Covid.”
Professor Majeed said he thought one issue was “unlike two years ago, we’ve now got population immunity through vaccination or prior infection which does tend to suppress the symptoms somewhat into things like a runny nose, a mild cough, sneezing which would overlap quite a lot with hay fever”.
Subsequently, it is down to a tripartite of vaccination, prior infection, and viral evolution as the reasons why more people are mixing up hay fever and COVID-19.
However, there is some debate over one overlapping symptom, sneezing.
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Sneezing is not present on the NHS’s list of COVID-19 symptoms, something agreed on by Boot’s chief pharmacist Marc Donovan.
However, Professor Tim Spector of King’s College London disagrees.
Professor Spector has said: “It is possible [high pollen levels are fooling people into thinking they have a bout of hay fever when in fact they have Covid], but people are pretty good at knowing when they are sick.
“It’s always good to check any new cold-like symptoms with a quick LFT test but if your only symptoms are a runny nose or sneezing it might just be hay fever.”
Questions are now being asked about whether restrictions will return as BA.4 and BA.5 have been shown to infect people in a similar way to Delta, causing more serious illness.
This summer, Professor Majeed isn’t concerned: “I would say probably we will be okay over the next few months.
“I think we might see some uptick, but I think the protective effects of prior infection and vaccination will see us through the summer.”
The new wave comes at a time when the NHS is at full stretchy trying to deal with non-Covid care.
