Five most common COVID symptoms changing, study finds

The most common symptoms caused by COVID-19 infection are changing as the virus evolves, with loss of smell and shortness of breath being seen less often, according to a new study.

Instead, symptoms usually associated with a common cold — sore throat, runny nose, blocked nose, persistent cough and headache — now top the list among fully vaccinated people.

The previous “traditional” symptoms dropped down the list, with loss of smell falling to sixth, shortness of breath to 29th, and fever to eighth, according to the Zoe Health Study.

The study, released last week, was done through a collaboration between researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, King's College London, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the ZOE health app.

They based the results on people’s vaccine records and daily symptom reports submitted to the ZOE app.

The most common symptoms varied somewhat depending on a person's vaccination status, though four symptoms are in the top five among people who were fully vaccinated, had one shot or had no shots.

Headaches topped the list for people with one shot and the unvaccinated, while it was number five for the fully vaccinated.

The top five symptoms for people with one shot were: headache, runny nose, sore throat, sneezing and persistent cough.

The top five for unvaccinated people were: headache, sore throat, runny nose, fever and persistent cough.

Infectious disease experts on Long Island said the study results mirror what they are seeing in emergency rooms and doctors’ offices across the region.

“I’m not surprised,” said Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Medicine.

Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious disease expert at New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, said that most people who have COVID, especially those who are vaccinated, “are experiencing an illness that’s more typical of upper respiratory infection and very different than the lower respiratory illness with a lot of systemic symptoms that were experienced in the early part of the COVID pandemic.”

“In many cases it’s hard to distinguish somebody who has COVID from somebody who has a respiratory illness from any of the other viruses that can cause common cold,” he said.

The best way to know the difference is by getting tested for COVID-19, he added.

Experts had various theories for why the symptoms are changing.

But Nachman cautioned that COVID-19 is still deadly, killing hundreds of people every day in the U.S. Getting vaccinated remains the best protection against dying, getting hospitalized, or getting infected with “long haul COVID,” in which people suffer symptoms such as “brain fog” that can last months or possibly even years.