'Mystery virus' fears spread on TikTok as users go wild with their own theories

29 February 2024 , 14:33

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TikTok users are reporting a new 'mystery illness' (Image: Getty Images/Cavan Images RF)

Fears of a 'mystery virus' are spreading on TikTok as people claim they have caught a new illness.

Users on the social media platform describing symptoms like feeling tired, losing their sense of smell, having a fever and feeling sick - all for weeks at a time.

Despite this, they say they've tested negative for Covid.

One TikTok user shared: "I was sick a few weeks ago for about two weeks. The first four days were absolutely terrible. I tested for Covid, I tested for both a and b flu, I tested for strep, and was negative for everything twice."

"I had a fever, pretty much for four straight days, I was super congested, shortness of breath, loss of sense of smell. Everything you would think of whenever you have Covid or the flu. I was also really dizzy and lightheaded a lot."

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But experts don't believe there's a mystery virus going around. In fact, the symptoms people are reporting are quite common with seasonal illnesses, reports The Daily Star, including the common cold. Marcus Plescia, a top doctor at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told The Hill: "The symptoms that are being described are pretty consistent with, you know, a lot of viruses that are not 'mystery viruses', that are things that are out there circulating all year. The common cold being one of them. "

Experts think that staying home during lockdowns made our immune systems weaker, and are also more worried about getting sick. Dr Georges Benjamin from the American Public Health Association said: "There's a collective amnesia of what life was like five years ago... RSV is getting a higher profile and higher billing in conversation because there is a vaccine for it. And we don't have a vaccine for the common cold yet. And again, it's almost 200 different viruses.

Others say Covid itself could be responsible, with at-home testing possibly producing false results. Pandemic-related anxiety has also given fuel to a generation of fake TikTok 'experts' who attempt to generate views and followers by peddling misinformation.

Callum Hood, head of research at the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, said: "Social media failed to tackle repeated waves of health misinformation during the Covid pandemic, and it's had a lasting effect in creating distrust of real medical experts while breeding a new generation of online quacks."

Ethan Blackshaw