One individual responded to say she is on week five of the cold and has a cracked rib from all the coughing. A call-out on social media revealed a range of symptoms, from “sandpaper throat” to “utter fatigue”. But anecdotally, simply getting through a day’s work with the super cold is near impossible. In the pre-pandemic world, colds weren’t something to be taken seriously it was quite common to suffer through a day’s work while blowing into a hanky or attend a meeting with streaming eyes. The tweet received more than 15,400 likes, with many people responding with their own accounts of the dreaded malady. One of the first people to complain about the super cold was Oliver Roll, who took to Twitter two weeks ago to detail his illness. Anecdotally, it has become known on social media as “the worst cold ever”.
In recent weeks, many people have reported experiencing severe flu-like symptoms, which have led experts to dub the unpleasant bug a “super cold”. After three weeks, it hasn’t shown any signs of letting up,” she says. “I’m double-vaxxed, but if it wasn’t for the negative tests I would think this was Covid. Given the severity of her symptoms, Kelly’s mind naturally jumped to Covid, but all three of her lateral flow tests came back negative. After temporarily disappearing for two days, Kelly’s cold came back with a vengeance – this time accompanied by a chesty cough. It’s not just a cold, my body feels really weak and my legs feel like jelly,” she says. Now, it feels like my head is made of sponge. “It started with a sore throat and terrible sinus pain. But three weeks ago, she came down with debilitating flu-like symptoms that left her almost bed-ridden. She can’t remember the last time she suffered from a bout of the sniffles and is regimented about eating a healthy diet and taking supplements to boost her immunity. One such “super cold” sufferer is Jules Kelly. The call volume is reported as being above expected levels, and there has been a particular increase from patients aged 15 to 44. Figures from the UK Health Security Agency showed that 111 calls about colds and flu, a cough, or difficulty breathing are on the rise. Have you caught “the worst cold ever”? Recent days have seen high numbers of complaints about the flu-like cold that’s being described as a “super cold”, with GPs reporting an increase in patients describing Covid-like symptoms despite negative PCR tests.