Some covid survivors are haunted by the loss of aroma and taste


Michael Miller, Bayside, NY, was infected with the coronavirus in March and has not smelled anything since. Recently, her husband and daughter said the kitchen was filling up with gas.

He had no idea. “It’s one thing not to smell and taste, but this is existence,” Ms. Miller said.

Humans always scan the environment for odors that indicate change and potential damage, although the process is not always conscious, said Dr. Dal Lutton of the Monel Chemical Census Center.

The smell, like dirty clothes, smells like dangerous and spoiled food. Without such an investigation, “people worry about things,” Dalton said.

Worse, some Covid-19 survivors are plagued by phantom odors that are unpleasant and often negative, such as burning plastic, ammonia or the smell of feces, called paroxemia.

Eric Reynolds, a 51-year-old probation officer in Santa Maria, California, lost his sense of smell when he signed the Covid-19 contract in April. Now, he said, he often believes from the stench that he knows it doesn’t exist. Food tastes like smoked dirt; Soap and laundry detergent smell like stagnant water or ammonia.

Mr. Reynolds said, “I can’t dish, it makes me gap.” It’s also haunted by the phantom smell of corn chips and the scent that says, “The smell of old woman’s perfume.”

Dr. E. Evan R., medical director of the Odor and Taste Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. Reuters said the medical director of Virginia Commonwealth University, who oversees the recovery of about 3,000 Covid-1s, said. Evan R. Patients who lost their sense of smell.