[deadmetheny]

This has been known for a while.

In the interest of anecdotal evidence, when I had covid the symptoms were all mild and indicative of a fairly normal cold (one day of a very mild fever + chills + exhaustion, and a few days of general malaise and sinus drainage plus slight cough). I was actually quite surprised when the test I decided to take in the interest of an abundance of caution returned positive, and that afternoon (day 4 of active symptoms) was when my sense of smell & taste completely turned off. It went from "my coffee tastes weak this morning" to "olfactory sensation has 100% vanished" in the course of a few hours. And for anyone who keeps saying you can lose smell/taste from a cold or the flu - in my personal experience, that is due to sinus blockage or drainage. This is a completely different sort of loss. I could breathe completely clearly through my nose and there was still absolutely nothing. Other symptoms were gone within 8-9 days of initial symptoms, but it took a full week for any sense of taste to come back and almost three weeks for it to return to normal.