Summer cold or delta COVID?

I’ve got a sore throat, feel feverish and, at times, actually have a slight fever.

These are my usual symptoms for a mild cold that occurs, for me, maybe a couple of times a year—except for the last year and a half, when I’ve had none.

Many of the symptoms of the COVID delta variant are similar to a cold, allergies, or sinus infection.  Since we are going to be visiting family this weekend, I was getting a little concerned with the symptoms, though everyone that will be there is vaccinated, and thought I ought to find out for sure that it wasn’t COVID. Karen and I are both fully vaccinated, but no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing infection.¹

I had not previously had any reason to get tested for COVID.  Since this is the first time I’ve had any symptoms that could possibly indicate COVID, I was unsure where I might go to get tested.  There had been a COVID triage center set up in the area very early on in the pandemic, but that has long since closed.  I checked CVS and Walgreens online but they didn’t have any appointment openings for testing locally.  I didn’t know whether the clinic I normally go to did the tests, so I called to see if I could get one there or if they could tell me where I could get one.  They set me up for an appointment at 3:15 that day, Wednesday.

Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, “recommends people with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or a cold see their doctor for testing or consider taking a rapid antigen at-home test.”²

The clinic is in a small town near our rural home.  It wasn’t busy—no one in the waiting room when I got there and one lady departed from the examing area shortly after.  The young nurse who took the nasal sample is very experienced with it as she was one of those who staffed the triage center while it was open.³ When I asked, she told me that, because of volume, it could take a couple of days to get the test results to me.

I was only wanting to get tested so was a little surprised when she told me to wait for a couple of minutes and the doctor would be in.  He looked in my ears and throat and checked my breathing with a stethoscope—a mini-exam given my symptoms—and told me that everything looked clear. He told me that someone would call me with the results the next day.

Later, much later, that evening, just as I was getting ready for bed, I checked e-mail and found a message sent at 5 PM saying that the doctor “has posted your test results to your Patient Portal.”  The test had been completed at 3:19 and had a note saying: “This test result was sent to you as soon as it became available. Your provider may not have reviewed these results yet.”⁴

The test was a PCR test “intended for the qualitative detection of
nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2.  It was negative.

They also tested for Type A and B influenza and RSV⁵. All three came back negative.

I guess it must just be a summer cold.

Just like I thought.

“If your test rules out COVID-19 and you’re left with a summer cold, Dr. Adalja says you can treat your symptoms with over-the-counter cough and cold remedies.”⁶

DayQuil, NightQuil, and Zicam—just like normal.  Ricola, too, for the sore throat.

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1. Rogers, Kaleigh. “Still Unsure about Getting the Covid-19 Vaccine? Start Here.” FiveThirtyEight. FiveThirtyEight, August 11, 2021. Accessed August 29, 2021. https://fivethirtyeight.com/.
2. Brown, Maressa. “Summer Colds and Covid-19 Have Similar Symptoms-Here’s How to Know Which One You Might Have.” Health.com, August 12, 2021. Accessed September 2, 2021. https://www.health.com/…summer-cold-or-covid.
3. I am acquainted with her from outside her work.  We were both members of a gym that closed early in the pandemic.  The gym is owned by the local hospital system which decided a couple of months ago not to reopen it.
4. I did get a call the next day at 8:04 AM
5. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also called human respiratory syncytial virus and human orthopneumovirus, is a very common, contagious virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract.
6. Brown.