Science News Maybe you can’t detect the scent of grass anymore. Or maybe coffee’s aroma now triggers disgust. After getting COVID-19, your sense of smell may seem persistently off. You’re not alone.
Even years after an infection, most people who say they have smell loss do indeed have a dulled sense of smell when formally tested, scientists report September 25 in JAMA Network Open. And people who thought they were smelling just fine often had problems, too, says Leora Horwitz, a general internist at NYU Langone Health. “Sometimes people don’t even recognize it when they have smell loss,” she says.