A Covid Early Warning Sign

struggled to contain the deadly pathogen. It took about four months for the virus to infect one million people and only twelve days for that number to double. The total case count today is likely higher than two millions, with some countries, including the US, testing only a fraction of their populations. The European Commission is devising a plan to

get Europe's economy back up and running. The Commission says companies and workers won't get back to business as usual until there's a vaccine or a cure for COVID nineteen. In the meantime, the European Union's Executive arm has created a roadmap for partially lifting restrictions in an effort to

mitigate the economic devastation. The plan, unveiled by Commission President Ursula Vonderland on Wednesday, would coordinate a gradual exit from the lockdowns that the blocks twenty seven member states imposed last month. The Commission has warned that the easing may be temporary, as it will unavoidably lead to a spike in new cases that could threaten healthcare systems again end

and lead to a reinstatement of the confinement rules. And China criticized US President Donald Trump's decision to halt funding to the World Health Organization and said they would support the global health body. Trump ordered the move against the WHO on Tuesday, saying the organization took China's claims about the coronavirus at face value. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jolly g n said Wednesday that the decision will quote weaken

the who's capabilities and undermine international cooperation end quote. And now for today's main story, the loss of the ability to smell is one of the strangest clues that someone may have COVID nineteen. Experts around the world are still trying to understand why this symptom pops up and what it means for patients. Some are calling on people who have lost their sense of smell to get tested and isolate themselves, even if they have no other symptoms, to

slow the spread of the virus. Bloomberg Senior editor Jason Gale helps untangle the mystery of how COVID nineteen might affect smell and why we might want to pay more attention to this obscure symptom. Thanks to COVID nineteen, we've learned a bunch of new words these past months. A nasmia and discusia are a couple of them. A nasmia is the medical term for the loss of smell. If you have discusia, it means your ability to taste things is off. It turns out both can be signs and

sometimes the first sign of COVID nineteen. What I hadn't yet realized is I'd completely lost my sense of small add taste. This is Dan Mace, a thirty year old vlogger from Cape Town, South Africa, who told his seven and fifty thousand UT subscribers about his experience of COVID nineteen. He got diagnosed on March twenty one. He felt pretty

lousy for a while, but wasn't hospitalized. In fact, a couple of doctors who reviewed him didn't think he had the coronavirus, but still some of his symptoms persisted, because when I made myself breakfast that I realized I had absolutely no taste and no smile, and that I hadn't had these two senses since the day that I became ill.

Dan Mace isn't alone. His symptoms have been experienced by patients all over the world, and eos and throat surgeons have likewise been noting such cases and alerting their colleagues to them. I spoke recently with Dr Jim Denaney, who's been working in the field for forty two years and is on the faculty at Johns Hopkins and the University of Missouri. He's also the executive vice president and CEO of the American Academy of odo Laryngology. Had a neck surgery.

Jim told me the loss of smell isn't uncommon when someone has a cold. COVID nine tame patients seem to be getting it more. I would say that a higher percentage of people seem to be getting it. There's still a good recovery rate, but there's a higher percentage of people than you'd expect from a common cold are getting some real anosmia or hyposmia. Partial smell and the accompanying this goosey. It means your taste is a little off, and you can make that happen yourself just by pinching

your nose when you're eating. So there's a normal relation between those two. Doctor saw a similar phenomenon with size or severe acute respiratory syndrome, a related coronavirus I think caused an outbreak in two thousand and three. This seems to be a little more prevalent than that one was,

at least from what I've read. But I don't think anyone has access to the total number of cases because many providers don't ask that question, and a lot of people are are so worried they don't come out and say and by the way, I can't smell or taste. They're worried whether they're going to survive or not. Jim's Academy started an online and knows me, a reporting tool

for doctors to share information about the condition. In much it's gathering important insights into patients with COVID nineteen who are experiencing a complete or partial loss of their senses of smell and taste. I think the most interesting piece in this first hundred and fifty there was over thirty percent that it was the only symptom they had before

the diagnosis. It was the first symptom. Jim thinks it makes sense for health workers to queery patients about sensory changes when they decide if someone should be tested for the coronavirus. In my mind, it's a what have you got to lose? Situation? If you ask the question and they don't have it, you have lost nothing. Because it's not an additional test. It doesn't put anyone at more risk, but it may actually get someone into self isolation earlier,

or be tested earlier than or is already happening. If you have these symptoms, how long will they last? We don't know. Some of these cases aren't that far, but the ones who are a lot of these don't last more than five to seven days was the average time in our in our studies, So most people will get most people get it back the majority, and most of

it comes within the first week to ten days. I guess as the takeaway point, the loss of smell might sound like a quickie symptom of COVID nineteen, but its effects can be profound, especially for those people whose sense of smell is lost forever. Dr Bob Data is an associate professor of neurobiology at Havard Medical School in Boston. His laboratory studies the function of neural circuits and how

they drive behavior. Hey is particularly interested in the sense of smell, how animals detect smells, and how that changes brain activity. I very much think the hope is that only a small fraction of these people will permanently lose their sense of smell, Bob says. When that happens, the permanent loss of the ability to smell is far from trivial, and it's important to remember that from a medical perspective.

You know, as humans were used to thinking of smell as being kind of a bonus sense um, and it's really critical to know that that's that's not what smell is. So smells essential for detecting dangerous odors, smoke from fires, spoiled food, natural gas, but and so we think of smelling that way, But it smells also incredibly important for

our well being. People who have nuance that permanent osmia often describe themselves as being depressed, and they're really at risk of developing depression because we're so dependent on our sense of smell for our kind of sense of well being and situating ourselves emotionally in the world. And so I think it's a community where we're really taking it seriously because we're hoping that I can understand this process

and maybe in the future. Interview, Bob says, basic scientific understanding about the new coronavirus is just emerging, which is why lamps are like his of only hypotheses around why infections may cause and nose meet and so that really strongly suggests that what's not happening is that the virus is directly affecting the cells in your nose that are responsible for smell. Okay, so what else could possibly be

going on? They've looked at other possibilities. The virus could be affecting cells that surround key neurons in the nose, stopping them from sending electrical signals to the brain. Or it could be damaging a layer of stem cells under the neurons, which then need to recover. You know, we're dealing with a very unusual situation. In which you know, the science is coming out as fast as we can

generate it. What are the amazing things about the way that science firs today Is that we can communicate a result of very quickly, and that means that there are a lot of preliminary results flooting around, But it also means that it's gonna take some time for us to organize an information. It really makes sense of it. The mystery of why many COVID nineteen patients lose their sense of smell and taste hasn't been solved yet, but finding the answer may lead to ways of treating the condition

and hopefully shorten the time it takes to resolve. Perhaps more important, if doctors begin to systematically screen for this symptom, not just the more common ones like coffin fever, they could test and isolate people with the coronavirus sooner. That could eventually make a big difference in containing the disease. That was Jason Gale in Melbourne. And that's it for

the Prognosis Daily edition. For more on the pandemic from our bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and one small favor if you like what we're doing, Please take a second to rate the podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is hosted by Me. The show was produced by Me Topher foreheads, Jordan Gaspoure and Magnus Hendrickson. Today's main story

was reported by Jason Gale. Original music by Leo Citrian. Our editors are Francesca Levy and Rick Shine. Francesca Leviy is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.