‘Don’t go outside, you’ll catch a cold!’ Or will you?

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The snowfall blanketing Central Virginia Tuesday night into Wednesday morning has created all sorts of problems for residents, but illness is not one of them -- at least not directly.

8News spoke with local and state health experts to clear up some common misconceptions about cold weather and being sick.

At some point in your life, you have likely been told, "Don't go outside — you'll catch a cold."

"Everyone's grandmother probably has said something like that," said UVA Professor of Medicine Kyle Enfield in an interview with 8News on Wednesday.

However, according to experts like Enfield, that's not necessarily true. Each winter, cases of covid, flu and RSV spread at heightened rates as people hide indoors.

"There's shared meals and shared family gatherings that allow us to be more likely to get sick during those times of year, because, rather than being outside, riding bikes, running outside, we're inside with our families, sharing our germs," Enfield explained.

So while the recent Central Virginia snowstorm can make driving scary and power unreliable, the chilly temperatures and frosty flakes are not directly to blame for the surging sicknesses across the region. The Virginia Department of Health's Head of Epidemiology, Laurie Forlano, clarified that researchers have studied potential correlations for some time.

"It's certainly possible that environmental factors could also affect the way your respiratory tract harbors a virus or a response to that," Forlano said.

Experts told 8News that, sometimes, in "extreme cases," sudden decreases in body temperature can lower one's immunity, but Central Virginia's climate doesn't fall into that "extreme" category.

That being said, there are some things people can do to take charge of their health.

"It is really hard to stay away from someone being sick these days," Enfield agreed, before sharing some advice: "The first thing is make sure you're up to date on your vaccines. It's really even still not too late to get your flu shot."

Health professionals added that people should wash their hands, avoid touching their faces in public, stay home when sick and seek medical help if you experience more serious complications like difficulty breathing or a high fever.

"It's really not what you can do to protect yourself, but what you can do to protect your friends and family," Enfield said.