For some people, losing a sense of smell can be a predictor of contracting COVID-19, while for others, it can be a temporary or even permanent side effect of having the virus.
Many folks who’ve lost their sense of smell are desperate to get it back. This is the focus of a recent LA Times story written by reporter Brittny Mejia.
Mejia says because more people are dealing with both parosmia, the distortion of smell, and anosmia, the complete loss of smell, they are turning to the internet for help.
She says, “There’s this group AbScent, a United Kingdom charity, and they have support groups on Facebook for people who are suffering from smell loss, who are suffering from the distortion of their smell. And it’s basically just people swapping tips and trying to figure out what works. Will steroids work? Will doing acupuncture work?”
For the majority of people, they do recover their sense of smell in weeks. “But researchers estimate that 5-10% are actually suffering long-term smell dysfunction, and that is playing out across the country and the globe,” says Mejia.
Some people don’t recover their sense of smell for two years, and Mejia says holding out hope for when/if it will return “is definitely very taxing on people emotionally.”