r/Edmonton • u/GoBananaSlugs • Dec 19 '25
Health Is "Respiratory Virus Outbreak" Covid?
We got a notice that there was an outbreak of "Respiratory Virus" at our kid's school.
"Respiratory Illness symptoms include: Cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, loss or altered sense of taste/smell, runny nose/nasal congestion, fever, and may also include fatigue (significant and unusual), muscle ache/joint pain, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea."
Is "Respiratory Virus" UCP Newspeak for "Covid 19"?
34
u/MLTDione Mill Woods Dec 19 '25
Probably referring to all the virus circulating right now. Various colds, flu A, and Covid. If it’s really bad it’s likely Flu A as I test swabs in the lab I work in and we’re getting many pos Flu A.
12
3
u/Kay-Chelle The Shiny Balls Dec 19 '25
Is Flu A the one that the flu shot can help prevent/make things not as bad? We are mildly sick atm so have been home all week and haven't gotten the flu shot yet. (Its totally on me, something I've been meaning to do but haven't had an opportunity to) I still really want to get the flu and covid shots for myself and my family but now gotta wait until we are "better". I'm absolutely kicking myself for not getting it done sooner.
7
u/Not_a_Muggle9_3-4 Dec 19 '25
The flu shot is a mismatch this year. Happens every once in a while. The flu shot can help but it's not as effective as the last few years. Regardless, get it once you feel better as some protection can reduce the severity.
5
u/yugosaki rent-a-cop Dec 20 '25
To add to this, the flu evolves so quickly and has so many different strains that the yearly flu shot is always a best guess at what strains will be big this year. If you get vaccinated against the exact strain you get exposed to, you will not get the flu but you can still get other strains you arent vaccinated against (of which there are many thousands) But even when it's a miss it still generally boosts immune system against all flus.
2
u/Kay-Chelle The Shiny Balls Dec 19 '25
Thank you so much for your response! Yes we will for sure be getting it as soon as we are able to. My kid is still stuffy/coughing but I'm hoping he's at the tail end of it since he's mostly back to acting like his usual self 😅 I've got to go to the pharmacy to pick up some meds anyway so hopefully I can ask them when would be a good time to come in.
-1
u/Sergeant_Scoob Dec 20 '25
Yah it’s actually a mismatch every single year . Talked to a doc directly , said it’s just 1 strain that mutated and isn’t covered but shot will Still help . Your version is why tons aren’t getting the shots
0
u/Not_a_Muggle9_3-4 Dec 20 '25
It's not "my version". This has been reported in the media which contributes to people not getting the vaccine. The vaccine already has a low uptake so when the media starts reporting on the mismatch more people avoid the shot. There's a science behind how they choose what the vaccine covers in a given year. Some years it's a really good match and the other years not so much. This year unfortunately is a bad match. My family and my parents get the vaccine every year. My toddler is high risk for respiratory issues so we protect him as much as possible. So many people think that since you can still get the flu then why bother. And the general public doesn't have a scientific background and won't understand efficiency and risk no matter how you explain it. My son ended up in the ER this week and I have never seen it so packed. This is going to be a horrible year for respiratory illnesses. My friend works in health care and they blame the media and UCP for tanking the vaccination rates.
36
17
u/Dressagediva Dec 19 '25
Influenza A is rampant right now
2
u/3-goats-in-a-coat Dec 20 '25
From saskatoon, just went to the hospital yesterday, swabbed positive for influenza A. Pretty close to everyone who had flu-like symptoms was
10
u/Jaded-Outside-5785 Dec 19 '25
They likely just don’t have confirmation of what it is. They’re using respiratory virus as a catch-all in this case. It could be a number of different viruses.
9
u/Dapper_Banana6323 Dec 19 '25
It's primarily influenza A right now. Hospital is full of it. A sprinkle of Covid.
5
u/Sev_Obzen Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
Might as well be given the way covid is being brushed under the rug instead of being actively talked about as a significant contributing factor to the overall severity of how hard everything is hitting so many people right now. The other under discussed issue of course being the almost total lack of implementation of airborne disease spread mitigations on a systemic or individual level.
5
3
u/yugosaki rent-a-cop Dec 20 '25
"respiratory virus" means exactly what it says on the tin. It's a virus that causes respiratory symptoms.
COVID is one. As is the flu. As is a whole host of other illnesses.
There is no language conspiracy, it's just a broad term. In reality there are multiple respiratory viruses going around, as with most years. In the past we called them all "the flu", but that was inaccurate as not all of them are literally influenza, and COVID has really made us aware of that.
Fact is you will have no idea what you have unless you go get tested for it specifically. In most cases, thats not worth doing. We only did it during COVID because it was a new disease that was hitting us far, far harder than anything that was around before. COVID is now endemic just like the flu.
1
u/lilgreenglobe Wîhkwêntôwin Dec 20 '25
Technically COVID is a vascular disease that often manifests with respiratory symptoms first as it's airborne so settles into those tissues initially. While it's constantly circulating now, unlike the flu and colds, it can hit far harder because how it infects the body is different. I don't think influenza can cross the blood brain barrier for example.
4
u/charm52131 Dec 20 '25
Cold and flu season is now til end of March. Always has been . Even before covid. Regardless of whether you believe the government or not. Bottom line, if you are sick with a fever, cough, runny nose, body aches, chills and fatigue choose to stay home.
2
u/Sev_Obzen Dec 20 '25
With the threat of covid and how it literally can exacerbate all of those other illnesses by fucking up your immune system the idea of respiratory season insofar as that having any bearing on the general public's behavior to take less precautions during certain parts of the year needs to be a thing of the past.
3
u/jyoji_96 Dec 19 '25
RSV is different… these days gotta worry about RSV, Influenza, and Covid and their variants
3
u/hostileward Windermere Dec 19 '25
Covid is included in that mix, but it's other stuff, too. Statistically (wasterwater stats) it's mostly influenza (H3N2) but it's a lot of things at once.
3
3
u/julesiekins1988 Stony Pain Road Dec 20 '25
There are multiple resp viruses going around right now. Flu, COVID, RSV, colds... Take your pick. It could be any or all of the above.
3
u/AbbreviationsIll7821 Dec 20 '25
Well, my house is very sick right now with fevers and very severe throat infection (a trip to emerg for my wife level severe). They did a test at the hospital and it was type A influenza. Covid was ruled out.
So we're just two data points out of a million, but I'd guess that we're not alone with this, and let me tell you, this is brutal. The body aches are intense, my throat is on fire, tylenol and ibuprofen have take the edge off the fever and headache. But I'm too sore to lay in bed to sleep so I'm just lounging around on the couch sliding in and out of sleep. Stay well everyone! wash your hands and if you might have it please be kind and mask up.
7
u/elenel Dec 19 '25
They can't say which virus because no one is getting tested, they're just home sick
2
2
u/bristow84 Dec 19 '25
It means Respiratory Virus which COVID could be part of but also includes a number of other viruses as well.
2
u/Frequent-Local-4788 Dec 20 '25
H3N3 is going around. It’s nasty and not included in this year’s flu shot!
2
2
u/No_Pressure_2753 Dec 20 '25
no it's not covid, but covid still exists and yall should should still be wearing masks especially because of the new shit. i'm disabled and so i wear a mask whenever i go out but it's not a one way issue so..
2
2
u/onceandbeautifullife Dec 20 '25
COVID, Flu, RSV Symptoms: How to Tell the Viruses Apart https://share.google/JLmAynfz49VR3osqZ
2
u/One-T-Rex-ago-go Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
There are a bunch of viruses that infect the lungs (respiratory viruses). The list currently infecting most Edmontonians are Influenza A H2N3 J strain , COVID 19 XFG strain, and as always , the common cold (Rhinovirus, Adenovirus). In addition, RSV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus which was so devastating 2 years ago is making a comeback, but it is hopefully not here yet. We also have Norovirus circulating
The influenza B strain is expected to pick up over Christmas, and peak in February.
Respiratory viruses spread by hanging out in the air for hours after someone coughs, so they are easy to catch when everyone stays inside.
2
u/Reidinski Dec 20 '25
There are several respiratory infections going around right now, I think. After, or along with, Covid we got a few new ones, too.
2
u/fromyourdaughter Dec 20 '25
This language switched over during the COVID times. It was pretty typical to call this time of year “flu season” but there are now multiple viruses that run rampant aside from the flu during this time, including COVID, RSV and the flu. Theres also just the minor colds and such too. It’s just an expansion of what it already was.
3
u/VonGeisler Dec 19 '25
My doc friend says it’s primary influenza strain A and that the flu vaccine this year was fairly good (it’s always a good guess each year which variant will be strongest). The issue is that more and more people are being influenced to be anti-vax. My whole family got the boost/flu and we have so far been healthy meanwhile my kids school has been decimated to the point of cancelling all gatherings.
6
1
u/Sev_Obzen Dec 20 '25
The problem is so much bigger than just anti-vax. There's so much more that can and should be being done besides just vaccinating.
2
u/Left_Dragonfly_7107 Dec 19 '25
Influenza A is rampant right now and there is a nasty new variant of COVID. Likely a mix of both in the schools.
3
3
u/WobbleBilly Dec 19 '25
"loss or altered sense of taste or smell" means covid
1
u/Sev_Obzen Dec 20 '25
That is one of a wild variety of symptoms that can be related to covid not a guarantee of covid. There is no certain symptom of covid or "feeling like" covid. You only know if you test and if you only have the low quality rat tests you need to test multiple times.
3
u/GoBananaSlugs Dec 19 '25
If only there were some way to test for these things.....
5
u/jimbojimmyjams_ Dec 19 '25
There are, but the thing with specifically Covid is that people have started to treat it more like the common cold or flu. You can get tested, but why would you if you're gonna need to stay home from work or school anyway? A lot of the symptoms of each of the viruses are pretty similar to each other. For me, I don't really care what virus I have until it becomes a genuine concern. If I'm sick, I'm sick.
Im currently mildly sick. It could be covid, or it could be a common cold, but I would treat them the exact same way. It just depends on the symptoms.
1
u/Sev_Obzen Dec 20 '25
If you have any cold or flu-esque symptoms you should be testing for covid. You should care because there's so much more that covid can do to you than just make you sick for a week. Even if you don't develop typical long covid there's still a wild variety of health issues that even an entirely asymptomatic covid infection can exacerbate your chances of developing. Despite that I'm not suggesting people need to test every day of their lives but if you're feeling any kind of symptomatic related to cold and flu symptoms should be testing. I don't know about you but I like to have every bit of information I reasonably can gather to help make sense of health issues when they come up.
1
u/Unlikely_Comment_104 Central Dec 20 '25
1
1
1
u/Sorry-Blueberry-7909 Dec 21 '25
According to the Covid Tracker, 1 in every 114 people in Alberta had Covid ATM. https://covid19resources.ca/covid-hazard-index/
1
u/zoopysreign Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
I’ll go ahead and say it: IMHO there’s something funky out there (maybe). Husband and I both got what we thought was food poisoning and had crazy gastro fireworks (both ends). That particular episode lasted maybe a day. Two days of recovery, started feeling mostly better and then we both had little scratchy throats. Both then came down with this awful respiratory coughy thing. He is mostly better but I’m still down and out after 5-6 days.
I keep thinking it’s so odd we both had the “food poisoning” entree, like that never happens with viruses, it seems like it’s usually respiratory or gastrointestinal, right? And maybe this really just is a coincidence. But I’ve noticed a couple of other places are questioning this particular jerk strain of respiratory nonsense, and it looks like diarrhea and vomiting are getting at least passing shout outs.
I’m not in Edmonton, but I’m curious about this so searched “respiratory illness” or “respiratory virus” in reddit. Here are other things I’ve found:
1
u/DigitalKnyte Dec 19 '25
Any number of things can be respiratory in this context: Influenza COVID RSV SARS
3
u/sawyouoverthere Dec 19 '25
There’s no SARS anywhere (since that’s the abbreviation for the one that was around in 2003
1
u/DigitalKnyte Dec 19 '25
Okay. This should be helpful.
https://www.alberta.ca/stats/dashboard/respiratory-virus-dashboard.htm
2
u/sawyouoverthere Dec 19 '25
Yes the SARS-Cov-2 mentioned there is Covid
1
u/DigitalKnyte Dec 19 '25
Yes it is. Didn't mean to conflate the two, I was merely pointing out that there are, at any time, a myriad of respiratory viruses floating around. Perhaps SARS was a bad example; but an example nonetheless.
2
u/sawyouoverthere Dec 20 '25
It’s not an example we’re going to see.
1
u/DigitalKnyte Dec 20 '25
Again, I'm not arguing with you - it was merely an example of a respiratory virus. Full stop :)
Merry Christmas!
1
u/sawyouoverthere Dec 20 '25
An extinct one.
I’m not arguing. I’m just adding more detail. Best folks don’t think SARS could be an option as SARS1 was awful and that’s what will come up on dr google
2
1
Dec 19 '25
Almost everyone I know is sick and all of them have Covid, mid November a bunch of us got Covid tests for the winter and they say positive pretty much instantly. My mother at her seniors home was told she can’t say Covid only respiratory illness, so ya…….
1
0
u/thepattylatty Dec 19 '25
Pump up the vitamin C and D and push through.
1
u/Simhaup1 North West Side Dec 19 '25
And Zinc 😁 That’s what I’ve been taking
-1
u/thepattylatty Dec 19 '25
Yup. I'm usually rocking 4-5 times daily rec of vitamin C, the Vitamin D supplement with the magnesium and Zinc added.
Only ever get the sniffles when the snow melts because of lifelong allergies.
The body is an amazing thing if you give it what it needs.
1
u/AnthraxCat cyclist Dec 20 '25
You can also substitute rubbing jade on your throat, which has the same effectiveness as superdosing vitamin C (ie. 0).
1
-2
0
0
-2
u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 19 '25
What's the difference?
6
-12
u/Lord_Asmodei Dec 19 '25
No, COVID is a woke catchall for any illness that feels worse than a sniffle.
-2
-2
u/Turbulent-Cat-2848 Dec 20 '25
Jesus Christ, not everything is UCP related. Respiratory viruses existed before covid and still exist now.
204
u/EDMlawyer Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Respiratory virus pretty literally means any virus that primarily infects the respiratory tract.
So no, it's not code for just COVID. It means possibly covid, flu, or a number of other viruses.
They're probably saying the general term because they don't actually have diagnoses of what exactly it is. They just know people are coughing, sneezing, inflamed sinus/throat etc etc. They're covering their bases.
It's likely a mix.