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EXPERT: New COVID-19 symptoms result of more cases, not virus mutation

The CDC added six new official symptoms to their list showing signs of COVID-19.

TYLER, Texas — The CDC announced six new symptoms for COVID-19 including:

  • Chills
  • Repeated shaking with chills
  • Headache
  • Soar throat
  • Muscle Pain
  • Loss of taste and/or smell

Dr. Richard Wallace is an infectious disease specialist at the UT Health Science Center in Tyler. 

He says the new symptoms, as well as reports of COVID-19-related strokes, show the larger variety of symptoms seen when more people get a disease.

“As we see more cases, we see different kinds of faces that the virus might present when you become sick, Dr. Wallace said. "Now that we have a million patients, what causes disease in 5-10% of the people, it's still a lot of people.”

Wallace says while these symptoms are officially recognized by the CDC, many other symptoms can indicate COVID-19.

“This is a generalized viral infection. It primarily causes pneumonia, but it's in the bloodstream," Dr. Wallace explained. "It goes to all of the organ systems, the heart, the lung, the liver, the brain, the GI tract. And in fact, even early on from China, there were symptoms, suggesting some of those things were present."

Wallace also says it is unlikely COVID-19 is evolving and hurting people in new ways. Using the flu as an example, he says each year the virus changes and requires a new vaccine, but the symptoms largely stay the same.

“I don't want to have people think it's just a more severe form of the flu, but in general, the symptoms of influenza have remained the same. It's your immunity that's affected by the changes in the virus,” Wallace explained. “So that the protective antibodies that you had last year don't help you this year. But it presents in much the same way.”

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