21 Sep Smithsonian.com: Why Covid-19 Patients Are Suffering From Distorted and Phantom Smells
On a perfect August night, Carol Pitz, a career consultant from Chanhassen, Minnesota, was looking forward to her 25th wedding anniversary dinner, especially because she and her family had spent much of the spring isolating after exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19. She woke up one morning in March, and couldn’t smell or taste anything, then developed a mild cough and fatigue. Not sick enough to be tested at the time, she and her family later tested positive for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
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Months later, Pitz and her husband were seated at a table overlooking the lake at her favorite restaurant. She ordered the special sea bass and Brussel sprouts, and the dish looked lovely when it arrived. But after a few bites, Pitz had to stop eating. Instead of smelling her food, she was overcome by a foul, and hard-to-describe scent. “It’s a unique smell,” she says. “I don’t even know what it is. It’s like a combination of burnt toast, and something just icky enough to make me sick to my stomach.”
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