Taste and Smell in Covid, not an old wives' tale!

Not an old wives' tale after all!

I had previously mentioned that loss of taste and smell were symptoms of Covid-19 based on clinical observations but a report in the Harvard Gazette this week confirms that these are significant predictors of the disease.

A recent collaborative study between Boston and London in which 2.6 million people used a smartphone app to log their symptoms daily showed that these odd symptoms — loss of smell and taste — was one of the best predictors, and one that scientists said should be including in screening guidelines.

They found that loss of taste and smell were reported by most of those tested, about 65 percent, and that the most predictive group of symptoms was loss of smell and taste, fatigue, persistent cough, and loss of appetite.

Also interesting is that this can occur up to 5 days before the onset of other Covid symptoms like fever.