Smell and taste changes are early indicators of the COVID-19 pandemic and political decision effectiveness

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments have taken drastic measures to avoid an overflow of intensive care units. Accurate metrics of disease spread are critical for the reopening strategies. Here, we show that self-reports of smell/taste changes are more closely associated with hospital overload and are earlier markers of the spread of infection of SARS-CoV-2 than current governmental indicators. We also report a decrease in self-reports of new onset smell/taste changes as early as 5 days after lockdown enforcement. Cross-country comparisons demonstrate that countries that adopted the most stringent lockdown measures had faster declines in new reports of smell/taste changes following lockdown than a country that adopted less stringent lockdown measures. We propose that an increase in the incidence of sudden smell and taste change in the general population may be used as an indicator of COVID-19 spread in the population.

Google Searches for Taste and Smell Loss Anticipate Covid-19 Epidemiology

“…Multiple potential cellular and molecular causes for these two paradigmatic chemosensory alterations have been proposed, such as nasal obstruction/congestion and rhinorrhea, damage of olfactory receptor neurons, infiltration of olfactory centers in the central nervous system, and injury of cells supporting the olfactory/taste epithelium [26]. Irrespective of the specific cause, substantial evidence has been provided that self-reported taste and/or smell dysfunctions is associated with community spread of the infection, as well as number of hospital admissions, and are capable of predicting disease epidemiology better than using conventional indicators [27].…”

Loss of Smell and Taste Can Accurately Predict COVID-19 Infection: A Machine-Learning Approach

“…Prediction models based on symptoms such as loss of smell and taste have been proposed as helpful tools to predict COVID-19 diagnosis [9,10,14,15] as well as early indicators of the effectiveness of containment measures in new outbreaks [16]. New approaches based on machine learning (ML) techniques have also attracted attention from researchers, who have recently used them to analyze and predict olfactory dysfunction in other nasal pathologies [17].…”

Störungen der Chemosensorik bei Covid-19: Pathomechanismen und klinische Relevanz

“…Eine aktuelle, hochrangig publizierte Studie aus Frankreich mit zusätzlichen Daten aus Italien und Großbritannien befasste sich mit dem möglichen Zusammenhang zwischen neu aufgetretenen, subjektiv bemerkten Riech-und Schmeckstörungen und der epidemiologischen Ausbreitung der Covid-19-Pandemie [57]. Das auf einem Online-Fragebogen basierende Projekt wurde insbesondere in Frankreich über soziale wie auch klassische Medien beworben.…”