Fact Check: The Omicron Variant Is Not the Common Cold

We probably aren’t going to be the first to tell you this, but there are thousands of people out there who don’t take the coronavirus pandemic seriously or even recognize it as a scientific fact.

One of the most common ways that both media outlets and ordinary people play the coronavirus down is by calling it the common cold or comparing it to the flu. Some even go so far as to assert that there is no COVID-19, blaming the symptoms of its victims solely on influenza. Who can you trust?

Faulty claims, misinformation, and outright lies currently abound. Who’s got their facts straight, and who’s off-base? Is the Omicron variant simply the common cold?

The COVID Omicron Variant Isn’t Exactly the Common Cold

Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have been around for a long time — they’ve been on our radar officially, however, since the 1960s. 

Seven human coronaviruses have been identified in total throughout human history:

• HCoV-NL63
• HCoV-229E
• HCoV-HKU1
• HCoV-OC43
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
• Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
• SARS-CoV-2, our own coronavirus stealing the show currently

HCoV-NL63, -229E, -HKU1 and -OC43 are all much milder than the coronavirus that we know today. 

While SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were both able to see relatively localized epidemic outbreaks in their own times, only SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19, has risen to prominence on a pandemic scale, evolving into a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

What does every coronavirus have in common? What makes a pathogen a coronavirus by definition? 

What Is a Coronavirus?

The World Health Organization defines a coronavirus disease as one of several classes of viruses associated with cold- and flu-like symptoms. We call COVID-19 a “novel” coronavirus because it is a new strain that has only been detected in human beings for a relatively short amount of time. 

What do all human coronaviruses have in common? 

All coronaviruses are “enveloped, single-stranded, positive-strand RNA viruses.” There are human coronaviruses, animal coronaviruses, and avian coronaviruses, although not all of these different diseases affect the victim’s respiratory system.

What Is the Difference Between the Coronavirus and the Cold or Flu?

Well, for starters, there’s pathogenesis. Needless to say, the COVID-19 coronavirus is derived from a totally different pathogen than the common cold and the flu.

The common cold is most frequently shown to come from a contracted rhinovirus, but several families of viruses may also sometimes be the culprit. Any of the milder human coronaviruses mentioned previously may also be recognized erroneously as an ordinary cold. The difference that the patient will experience in these cases will be negligible at best.

On the other hand, influenza viruses cause what is typically regarded as the flu in human beings. 

Again, for most, self-diagnosis will usually involve a victim assessing themselves based off on perceived symptomology exclusively — anything like diarrhea, fever, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, and an aching body may all be considered flu-like symptoms, but there are many different reasons that a person may be experiencing these issues. COVID-19, however, usually won’t be one of them unless you’re dealing with a flu-like case of Omicron. 

Finally, we arrive at COVID-19 and all of its associated variations. We’ve been living alongside the novel human coronavirus for a few years now, and, despite the fact that it has evolved and changed dramatically, the overwhelming majority of sequenced COVID cases being documented currently can be attributed to the following coronavirus variants:

• The SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant
• The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant
• The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

While it’s definitely not possible to trace and sequence every single case of COVID-19, we’ve got plenty of data illuminating the path ahead. COVID-19 isn’t exactly a mystery to us anymore, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we should be letting our guards down as a society.

Other differences between Omicron and the cold include physiological differences between the viruses themselves, including the characteristic structures and receptors adorning the surfaces of each.

The capsid of a virus is the biological protein shell enclosed around the viable component of the viral unit. This outer shell in a single rhinovirus specimen, for example, is icosahedral, resembling a 20-sided geometric shape. 

The structure of any coronavirus specimen includes a “halo” or “corona” of extrusions (the spikes protruding from the viral unit from all sides), in contrast to both rhinovirus and the influenza virus. 

Omicron, in particular, has distinguished itself from even the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 with a new appendage — one spoke in its halo that reaches far beyond the others, thanks to an additional 32 mutations.

The Confusion Between Omicron & Common Cold

In our eyes, there are plenty of differences between the coronavirus and the common cold. Others, however, remain to be convinced.

We’ve got a couple of ideas as to how these misconceptions came into being in the public mind. Here are a couple of reasons why many continue to compare COVID-19 to the common cold, even as Omicron establishes itself as supreme.

Omicron Isn’t as Deadly as Previous COVID Strains

People may be getting confused because the Omicron variant isn’t as lethal as previous COVID variants. While Omicron’s death rate isn’t nearly as alarming as those first crazy months in quarantine, the fact that it covers ground so quickly is nothing to discount as harmless.

Omicron Symptoms Are Much More Like the Symptoms of the Flu

Instead of the ungodly respiratory distress, we remember from the earliest days of the pandemic; Omicron has few patients on ventilators. This puts its presentation much closer to a traditional cold or flu than the original coronavirus, which may confuse some.

The Facts Stand Strong: The Omicron Variant Is Not the Common Cold or Flu

Some people think that the pandemic is all hype. Others are scared out of their wits. When fear, uncertainty, and doubt get in the way of our better judgment and common sense, madness ensues. 

The scientific community has been working night and day for nearly three years to understand everything that there is to know about this unprecedented global phenomenon. The research is still ongoing and in development, but one thing that we know beyond knowing is that COVID-19 has nothing to do with the flu or the common cold.