Hey, Bud

If you're a perennial or even occasional allergy sufferer, you might not smile as much as the next guy when you see trees budding and temperatures climbing.

To make matters worse, if you start to get that stuffed nose or scratchy throat, your initial will likely be "Do I have COVID?" rather than "Do I have Claritin?"

A friend of mine is experiencing this right now so I had to dig deeper. Well, not that deep, but deep enough to impart some knowledge...

So how do allergy and COVID-19 symptoms differ?

Some of the most common allergy symptoms include sneezing, itchy or watery eyes, congestion or runny nose. Common COVID-19 symptoms include fever and chills, muscle and body aches, loss of taste or small, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea. 

Sources say symptoms both allergies and COVID-19 can have in common include cough, fatigue, headache, sore throat, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, congestion or runny nose.  Oh. Just those? Of course, I also read that seasonal allergies don't usually cause shortness of breath or difficulty breathing – unless you have a respiratory condition that can be triggered by pollen exposure, such as asthma. So there's that.

The bad news... I sense I'll get hit with my occasional allergies this time around since historically I do when the temps really warm up early in the season – like now.

The good news... allergy sufferers can sneeze right into their face mask, which can double as a handy hanky!

Good luck, Buds!