Dear LPG,

I am honestly not trying to frighten anyone and I really hope that everyone who is reading this is feeling OK, but I suspect that, as is usual now that the summer weather has well and truly left us for the rest of the year, people are beginning to get the odd cold. 

It’s the time of year when the days still look summery and the sun keeps us reaching for those short-sleeved, lighter clothes in the mornings just because we can still see it’s yellow aura out there, on the horizon, shining through the bedroom window.  

Well that is my excuse, and in spite of my yearly flu jab I manage to get a cold every year at this time, and even though I am someone who is used to a bit of sneezing and blowing my nose a lot this would not usually phase me in the least.  I am so used to it that, as long as I stay out of everyones way for a short while, I don’t end up in bed for days on end, although I stay at home and keep busy. 

The problem is this year, in the light of the pandemic we are still in the middle of, there is the fact that the symptoms of Covid-19 are quite similar to those of a cold or flu, and I was left just wondering if my cold could be mixed up with a bit of the other (if you know what I mean).

I know that we have all heard the news about how to tell the difference but being at home anyway gave me the time to look it all up again just to be sure, and I thought it might be a good idea to add a few links to remind any other readers who woke up this morning with that element of doubt in their minds as well as a few symptoms, how to start the process of sorting out what you have got and what you have not.

So I hope that the following links to some basic differences between the three illnesses might be of some use… 

HB, Blackheath.

HB shares her personal research on the differences between colds, ‘flu and covid-19…

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…and LPG has found a quiz for readers to try just in case you are still not sure

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