Loss of the ability to detect aromas can be a sign you have COVID-19.
You’ve just received some holiday-themed candles, so you strike a match and then settle back to enjoy the lovely scents of cinnamon and pine. But eventually you realize that what you smell is …. nothing.
Is it a manufacturing snafu or could this be an early warning sign of COVID-19?
It was the latter possibility that intrigued Portland, Oregon–based science illustrator Terri Nelson, enough that she began looking at online reviews of scented candles. She found plenty of evidence that something was amiss.
Writing on Twitter in late November, she noted, “There are angry ladies all over Yankee Candle’s site reporting that none of the candles they just got had any smell at all. I wonder if they’re feeling a little hot and nothing has much taste for the last couple days too.”