FRESH INSIGHTS, THANKS TO COVID-19

Many of us have a new appreciation for our sense of smell

In 2018, the polling firm YouGov asked almost 20,000 adults which of the five senses they would miss the most if they lost it. Sight was by far the number one answer, at 70 per cent. Next came hearing, taste, then touch. Smell was at the bottom, with just two per cent saying they would miss it.

Had the survey been done in the wake of the pandemic, the results might have differed, since many of those who got the illness experienced anosmia: a loss of smell. The link between COVID-19 and anosmia became clearer, wrote Brooke Jarvis in The New York Times Magazine in January, when a newly formed group of specialists (the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research, or GCCR) surveyed thousands of COVID-19 patients from 40 countries. They had suddenly lost their sense of smell; many also lost their ability to taste.

GCCR survey data showed that changes in smell and taste often occurred just days after infection with COVID-19. The group’s research, published in the journal Nature in October 2020, concluded that of those people surveyed in France, self-reports of smell and taste changes were earlier markers of infection spread than government metrics.

The GCCR data showed that many who lost their sense of smell were also no longer able to perceive cooling, tingling and burning sensations from stimulants such as chilli and menthol.

And when smell did return, for some people everything smelt rancid. According to AbScent, a UK-based support organisation, even water can smell disgusting – and eating no longer brings joy.

Not only that, the condition can be dangerous: according to Nature, people with anosmia are less able to detect spoilt food and smoke, leaving them twice as vulnerable to food poisoning and fire.

Thanks to the new attention and interest in researching smell, this sense, that has been perceived as expendable, is becoming better appreciated and understood.