New research Thursday aims to quantify a life-altering aftereffect of covid-19: a lingering loss of smell, also known as anosmia. The study estimates that up to 1.6 million people in the U.S. have experienced chronic anosmia lasting at least six months following their coronavirus infection.
— Read more in Over a Million Americans May Have Permanently Lost Their Sense of Smell to Covid-19 at Gizmodo, or the original study, Growing Public Health Concern of COVID-19 Chronic Olfactory Dysfunction, at JAMA.
I have not clicked on the links but have previously read about oenophile (or actually one whose job is to evaluate grapes and wine) who lost her sense of smell – what do you do?
I also spoke with the proprietor of an experiential shop that lets groups of people decorate a wood item for which she supplies everything but the wine. She had COVID earlier this year and just when she thought she was cured, it was as if her brain was re-wired and misassigned smells. The smell of fresh cut wood became the scent of stinky ? and that has made her very depressed because she’s around wood pretty much everyday of the week.
There is some evidence that many people with post-covid anosmia are depressed 🙁