Sore Throat Becoming Most Common COVID-19 Symptom

 The family of corona viruses have a great defense mechanism of evolving over time.  That's why we need to continue to be aware of and track outbreaks and symptoms.

Over the weekend I was doing some reading and I came across an interesting bit of information regarding a change in how we are now detecting Covid infections.  

There is a website and an app that is run by Dr. Tim Spector in the UK.  His work which you can see at the ZOE Health Study website uses the app to help track the data.  Basically individuals download the app and then use it to indicate their current symptoms.

I love apps that use "the hive" mentality of everyone contributing just a little bit to then improve things for everyone.  When you download the app, which can be found by searching "ZOE Health Study" in the Apple App Store, you open it and create an account.  It asks for basic demographic information to setup and then you can fill out how you are currently feeling.

The great thing about this type of data gathering is that it allows for fast collection of data.  If you indicate you are not feeling well, you fill out your symptoms.  If you have a positive test you also indicate that.  This lets the professionals at ZOE Health Study to see symptoms and infection trends rapidly and easily.

Lately statistics indicate that most people who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 have a sore throat.  In the early days of the pandemic, the prominent symptoms were loss of taste/smell and fever.  However data coming into ZOE Health Study is showing those symptoms are not as common in current infections.

Of course being able to track things like this, especially symptoms that show up early in the infection is a terrific way to help the public as well as professionals to be aware of the changing landscape.  It helps doctors to be better prepared and to make a better diagnostic decision as well as helping the public know when isolate.  Before this data was available I'm not so sure that many people would have connected that symptom to a potential SARS-CoV-2 infection.

I salute Dr. Spector and his group in the UK for their hard work and for making the app and its data available to us.  I've downloaded the app and will be supplying my data on a regular basis.  If we all do a little, we can accomplish a lot.