Originally Posted by heero_yuy

I struggle to hear what people say in noisy environments and didn't realise how much I lip read until masks came in. It's very frustrating.

Given that the omicron variant is spread by viral particles rather than water droplets it's said that ordinary cloth masks are largely ineffective anyway.

Originally Posted by nffc

The thing is, what are exactly "covid symptoms", it does seem to change a fair amount, because they are nonspecific to begin with.


Right at the start of the pandemic it was a new cough and fever, they added loss of taste a bit later, they have been the main ones since, but there are also others, for example diarrhoea, runny nose, headache, tiredness, joint pains... Basically not a lot different from any other virus really.


With the omicron variant we also have a situation where the symptoms are very much easily confused with a cold though this could be simply that in vaccinated or previously infected people the virus is milder.


Really the only way to know if you have covid or a cold/flu virus now is to take a test. And of course, other coronaviruses can cause colds in humans.