That’s tough luck—corona has taken away your taste
One of the symptoms of a covid-19 infection is the loss of smell and taste. Americans who have experienced this show that you can down a jar of pickle juice without so much as flinching, followed by a strong whisky in one gulp.
Andy Goldstein, host of a football programme, was the first to demonstrate this on YouTube. He had a mild case of corona, with some fever, coughing and a headache, which he had recovered from a day later. But he couldn’t smell anything. Andy demonstrates: a slice of onion in his mouth, a wedge of lemon, and then a big gulp of vinegar. Without batting an eyelid, so that’s really not normal.
A lemon and an onion
Amy Mitchell shows in a video on Twitter that she can eat a lemon and an onion one after the other, followed by a spoonful of chilli sauce and a glass of tequila for dessert. We’re afraid there may be something else wrong with Amy if she gets all of this into her stomach one after the other…
Other stories about the loss of smell and taste are also known: a mother who could no longer smell her child’s dirty nappy (win!), someone who could clean the litter box without gagging (also a win!) and a chef who could no longer smell whether there was garlic in the food (shit!).
Better go into quarantine after all
A vanished sense of smell and taste can be a symptom of corona, but also of other respiratory infections, so it is not a one-to-one diagnosis. British ENT doctors warn people who can no longer taste anything to go into quarantine for at least a week, just to be safe.
Will it come back?
A German virologist spoke to corona patients about their symptoms. Most people with mild corona symptoms mentioned the loss of smell and taste. They only suffered from it for a few days, but Philippe Gevaert, an ear, nose and throat specialist at UZ Ghent, says it can take a few months to a year for the senses of smell and taste to fully recover.
Also read:
- Corona crisis: these restaurants have now gone bankrupt
- How corona is making me completely lose it and even crave…
- Corona news: chocolate Easter bunnies in quarantine
Photos: Amy Mitchell on Twitter
