If Our Spouse Smells Wrong, What Do We Learn?
The spread of SARS-CoV-2 has caused an associated pandemic of anosmia, the loss of smell. That could lead to scientific breakthroughs.
Still there.
Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Researchers estimate that about four out of five Covid-19 patients suffer a partial or total loss of smell, a condition known as anosmia. Many have no other symptoms. And no, it’s got nothing to do with stuffy noses; it’s all about the havoc the coronavirus wreaks on our nervous systems.
Many patients recover their olfaction quickly. Others smell less than they did before (hyposmia) or scent every odor wrong (parosmia). A spouse suddenly smells like a stranger, wine like cardboard, sewage like coffee. And some people never regain any olfaction. Worldwide, they must already number in the millions.