system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do so many viruses have similar symptoms?

I was reading about how there are many different viruses that cause the common cold...why do all these viruses share the same symptoms? What makes a cold virus different from one that causes another viral infection?
gpt
Different viruses can have a common tropism, i.e. the type of host cells they infect. In the case of the cold viruses they recognise the epithelial cells of the respiratory tract. Moreover, the symptoms are due to the body's immune response, rather than to the viral attack itself. That is why the body's response to a cold or to the flu are similar even though the sickness can be caused by totally different viruses.