Urgent warnings over 'super cold' striking Australia as disease expert Professor Peter Collignon from ANU says latest Covid strain may be a 'beat up' and makes a surprising call on whether 'man flu' is real

An infectious diseases expert has weighed in on whether the rash of colds, flus, Covid and other respiratory illnesses Australians have come down with in recent weeks are out of the ordinary - and also offered good news for men accused of looking for sympathy with 'man flu'. 

While some experts have said a 'super cold' is making Australians sicker than usual this season, others say it is too soon to judge this winter over previous years and that fears over the latest Covid variant may just be 'a beat up'.

'We're in winter and there are a lot of various viruses floating around ... and the trouble is some people can get very sick with the common cold,' Professor Peter Collignon, infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at the Australian National University, told Daily Mail Australia.

But Prof Collignon said it is too soon to speculate on the overall picture for the 2024 Australian winter season - which the rest of the world looks to as an indicator of what lies ahead for their winters later in the year. 

'So far we're not seeing great excess deaths as far as we can tell compared with a normal winter,' he said. 

'Every winter, you see more deaths mainly in people over the age of 80. But so far, it doesn't seem to be any worse (this year, so far).'

Prof Collignon, however, did offer some support for men excessively complaining about how sick they are this cold season while suffering from so-called 'man flu'.

'Men's immune system isn't quite as good (as women's), so they can have symptoms for longer on a biological basis,' he said. 

'There is at least some limited data that suggests that men (with colds) start off the same as women but may have their symptoms linger for a bit longer probably because their immune system isn't quite as good as females' immune system at the same age.'

The professor, who was one of Australia's most trusted voices through the pandemic, said some of the perception of there being more sickness around is due to people being more aware of their health after years of Covid. 

There is also a lot more testing for various respiratory illness done now than in the past.  

'We're doing more testing now because there are what they call multiplex PCR tests available. We're getting viruses now that were there over 10 years ago (but) we weren't testing for it.'

He said the objective way to measure the figures for serious respiratory illnesses are to tally how many people are going into hospital now in different age groups, compared with other years, and how many extra deaths there are. 

'The worst winter we had was 2020 because that was the first year of Covid ... I would expect that this year as judged by deaths or hospital admissions, probably will be an average year.'

Prof Collignon said people should get the vaccinations available to them. 

'If you're in an at risk group, and particularly those who are elderly, get vaccinated for influenza, the pneumonia germ and for meningococcal, because it's available for people over the age of 65.

'And also Covid, if you need a booster and you're in those groups they're recommending (to get the shots) which are the older people.'

He also has good advice for younger people who pick up a virus.  

'If you're sick, keep away from others, try to even keep away from your family as much as practicable ... and work from home (if you can) until you are reasonably better and therefore much less infectious.'

The professor said that the latest Covid variant, known as FLuQE, is not as fearsome or dangerous as has sometimes been reported. 

'The same story is being run every time there's a new variant - "the end of the world is coming", and every time they're wrong,' he said.

'The reality is, it's just another variant of Omicron that's been circulating, people have got immunity. Will some people die from it. Yes, they will. Mainly people who are more at risk but even some others.'

Prof Collignon said there is a very simple way to look at how bad or otherwise a Covid variant is.  

'If you look at the waves that come as judged by death, (FLuQE) is much less of a wave. This is going to go on forever and every year, probably twice a year, we're going to get a new variant.

'Unless you can show that people are dying at increased rates or the previous immunisation or immunity doesn't protect you, well, I think this is all just a beat up by people probably wanting research grants.'

He does not oppose the study of the latest variants, but cautions that 'you've got to be careful about dissecting out a bit of self interest in some of this over promotion'. 

'The viruses that seem to put people into hospital in bigger numbers over the winter are RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) for the very young and very old, and influenza, mainly for the very old, and then Covid.

'All three of those viruses circulate every winter and cause a lot of people to get sick,' he said. 

Prof Collignon said the experience of the pandemic years and people's memories of previous illnesses can affect how sick they think they are if they get a cold or flu.

'Covid has heightened our awareness and everybody still thinks, oh, if they get Covid it might be really bad. So they're more aware of their symptoms.

'And it's hard to know (if a cold or flu is worse than before) because you always forget what happened to you a year or two years ago as an individual.

'So there's always a perception that it's (worse, because) it's hitting them now.'

He said the only way to know for sure if this winter season is worse for illnesses than previous years 'is to look at more objective measures like deaths or hospital admissions and see how different they are'. 

'Because they're the tip of the iceberg. So if you have more of them, there's a lot more (illnesses) down below under them as well.'