OHIO — A common symptom with COVID-19 is loss of taste and smell. While some patients' senses end up coming back, for some, they aren't as lucky.

What You Need To Know

  • COVID-19 symptoms vary person to person, but for many young adults a common symptom is the loss of taste and/or smell

  • New studies are coming out with potential reasons as to why and how this symptom occurs

  • Doctors are finding that most patients' taste and smell fully returns, but some aren't so lucky

  • More information will become available as doctors learn more about COVID-19 itself and its effects on the body

As COVID-19 is an airborne disease, a primary entry point for the virus is the nose, said Charles Elmaraghy from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.


“As an airborne virus enters your nasal cavity, some of the proteins on the outside of the virus attach to the lining of your nose and there's a specific area of your nose, called the olfactory bulb, which mediates your sense of smell. And as the proteins of the virus attached to some of those cells in the process, they damage them,” said Elmaraghy.

Elmaraghy said the amount of cells damaged determines the amount of smell lost.

“There's different types of cells in your nasal cavity that help you smell. And one of those types of cells is damaged in a full spectrum by COVID. Some can get mild damage; some can get more severe damage to those cells,” said Elmaraghy.

And as Dr. Kenneth Rodriguez from University Hospitals in Cleveland said, taste and smell go hand-in-hand.

“About 80% of taste is smell. So, even if you knock out your sense of smell, you can still taste different things— bitter-sweet things of that nature. The loss of smell obviously then will significantly alter your perception of taste. Taste also has a different neural supply than smell. So, if individuals are having a substantial loss of taste, which in some individuals we're seeing with Coronavirus, it means that different neural supplies were impacted and that can lead to, result in loss of taste,” said Rodriguez.

What medical experts have documented is that everyone’s COVID-19 experience is not the same, as every immune system is different.

Most patients who experience this symptom are regaining their sense of taste and smell quickly, like Mariah Coy.

“It was about like seven days, just like a week. It really wasn't long at all,” said Coy.

While others, like Hannah Boesinger, months later, still have not.

“Everything is just kind of muted. Like when I eat food, I know if it's salty, sweet or bitter. But like flavor wise, not a lot's there. So like, if it wasn't for texture, I probably wouldn't know what actual food I was eating,” said Boesinger.

But Rodriguez said the good news is the cells in the nose do have the capability to regenerate — it just takes time.

“Most individuals will recover in about two to three weeks — 75% to 85% about two months out and more than 90% by six months. There will be a small percentage of people that will not regain their sense of smell,” said Rodriguez.