If youre sick this fall, youll probably get two virus tests

If you go to see a doctor with flu-like symptoms this flu season, chances are you’re going to get swabbed for two tests: one for the flu, and one for COVID-19. Unlike flu seasons when there isn’t a pandemic, doctors can’t be confident that someone with body aches and a fever has the flu. That’ll change the diagnostic process for both diseases.

“This year, if it looks and smells like flu, it could be flu — or could be COVID-19,” says Richard Webby, an infectious diseases researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Sorting out one from the other is important. The treatment methods may not be that different: someone with a mild case of the flu and someone with a minor case of COVID-19 will both probably be sent home to...

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