MichaelBijanAfghani
Harmless
Posts: 19
Registered: 15-11-2021
Member Is Offline
|
|
How common is long-term loss of smell if you get Omicron while vaccinated?
Considering that smells are one of my favorite parts of organic chemistry, I'd be devastated if I get omicron and permanently lose my sense of smell.
I can double mask but I work a public facing job which is scary.
[Edited on 2-1-2022 by MichaelBijanAfghani]
|
|
|
Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4508
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
Member Is Offline
Mood: PhD candidate!
|
|
Anecdotal, of course, but I caught it right before Christmas, despite having had three doses of Pfizer, and I didn’t experience any loss of taste
and/or smell, though I experienced other mild symptoms (fever for a couple days, congestion, headache, fatigue, and a lingering cough that hasn’t
gone away yet). My fiancée (also has had three shots, but Moderna) then caught it from me, and experienced essentially the same symptoms. No loss of
smell or taste.
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6220
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: Unmoved
Member Is Online
Mood: Organised
|
|
That particular symptom appears to have been overstated from the beginning.
Reports I have heard concerning omicron is that anosmia is quite uncommon.
|
|
|
wg48temp9
National Hazard
Posts: 761
Registered: 30-12-2018
Location: not so United Kingdom
Member Is Offline
|
|
Recently two of my near neighbours have tested positive for the virus and are now isolating. Both had been double vaccinated. There symptoms are
mild, just mild flue like symptoms. No mention of loss of taste or smell.
I should also add that they are members of the same family one of whom works at a hospital and at a vaccination center and two others in shops.
I am wg48 but not on my usual pc hence the temp handle.
Thank goodness for Fleming and the fungi.
Old codger' lives matters, wear a mask and help save them.
Be aware of demagoguery, keep your frontal lobes fully engaged.
I don't know who invented mRNA vaccines but they should get a fancy medal and I hope they made a shed load of money from it.
|
|
|
unionised
International Hazard
Posts: 5102
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: UK
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
I got the bug (in spite of 3 jabs) over Xmas and my sense of smell became rather "muted" for a few days, but came back.
|
|
|
woelen
Super Administrator
Posts: 7976
Registered: 20-8-2005
Location: Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: interested
|
|
One of my daughters and her husband had corona in November. Mild symptoms. Our daughter still has weak symptoms (she's tired more quickly than she
used to be), but slowly things are getting better.
A colleague of mine also had corona (in April last year). He was ill for two weeks and then fully recovered. Only after-effect is change of smell.
Most things smell normally, but some things (e.g. onions) have a very weird smell for him at the moment. He can live with it, but once in a while he
encounters a substance which has a radically different smell for him after he had corona.
A friend of mine also got corona 3 weeks ago. Two weeks ago he had to go to Intensive Care and he still is there, kept asleep for two weeks now and
laying on his belly. This is very very serious and I hope he will survive. His wife also had corona at the same time. She only had mild symptoms and
recovered (more or less, she of course is very distressed, due to the condition of her husband). They both have similar age and both were healthy
people and both had two shots of Pfizer.
So, things can be very different for different persons, and the weird thing is that no one can predict how badly one will be affected.
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6220
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: Unmoved
Member Is Online
Mood: Organised
|
|
Good anecdotal data there, woelen, and consistent with the big picture scenario as far as I can ascertain.
It is emerging that omicron is far less severe than previous variants even though it is significantly more transmissible. There is good reason to
believe that in the short term, omicron will simply join the collection of viruses that we designate as "the common cold". But it would seem that
your friend in paragraph 3 is most likely infected with delta, from what you have described.
I have found the YT channel, Dr John Campbell to be a thorough and balanced source of information. By which I mean, his analysis is demonstrably
data-based, he is non-inflammatory in his comments, he is conservative in terms of his readiness to draw inferences or make conclusions, and he
advocates a broad spectrum of both preventative and management practices.
To the question raised in the OP, in John's latest offering he describes the changes in symptomatic response in the omicron variant. Relevant info in
the first 3 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1avXjzr1xnc (But it is well worthwhile watching through and also watching a few videos from the past three weeks.)
|
|
|
AvBaeyer
National Hazard
Posts: 644
Registered: 25-2-2014
Location: CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
In June of 2019 I caught a horrible virus while in Italy near Como. It had all the hallmarks of covid although it was before there was any idea of
covid. I lost taste and smell. Taste fully recovered in about two months while smell took about four months to fully return. Aside from the taste and
smell I recovered in about 10 days. Unfortunately, one of the big events on that trip was a pro-level cooking course that my wife had arranged as a
birthday present. It was interesting that while my taste and smell were haywire, wine tasted like vinegar - I could only detect acid.
My doctor told me that loss of taste/smell is not uncommon with serious upper respiratory viral infections. He noted that sometimes there can be
serious nerve damage from such an infection that taste/smell never fully recover. He pointed me to a section of the Merck Manual which confirmed this.
AvB
|
|
|
macckone
International Hazard
Posts: 2159
Registered: 1-3-2013
Location: Over a mile high
Member Is Offline
Mood: Electrical
|
|
Delta is definitely more severe than Omicron.
Based on the anecdotal evidence most people recover their taste and smell in a couple of months.
I have had a similar experience with the flu, that was a decade ago and I don't think my sense of smell and taste was ever the same afterwards.
I didn't lose it completely, it just muted some.
|
|
|
a_bab
Hazard to Others
Posts: 458
Registered: 15-9-2002
Member Is Offline
Mood: Angry !!!!!111111...2?!
|
|
Had delta in October, with two Moderna shots back in March 2021.
It was like a roller coaster, a heck of a cold I must say with terrific headaches, almost NG-like.
I lost the sense of smell for like 2 weeks and this is how I've learned the mint smell is actually a sensation: the sense of taste was numbed down but
I could still feel spicy/minty taste.
And the fat has a special, very pleasurable flavor (milk cream or butter for instance).
Apart from that, the food was horrible, the coffee was just bitter etc: the orange juice was a mix of sweet, acid and a bit bitter. I must have lost 2
kilos because I hated the food.
While I wasn't able to smell the stinkiest fart (cat shit had no smell at all, it should have sent me puking from smelling it up close but it didn't,
couldn't smell the slightest bit), nail polish (acetone based) had a very interesting effect; I could feel something but it was by no means the sweet,
cool acetone smell. It was a very interesting smell, still similar to organic solvents but very different, can't describe it.
Now, some relatives (old, 70+) got Omicron days ago and they are all fine, with very little symptoms, no loss of smell etc. It's the lightest Covid
form so far and I think it would be a nice natural vaccine candidate.
[Edited on 7-1-2022 by a_bab]
|
|
|
Hexabromobenzene
Hazard to Self
Posts: 96
Registered: 27-4-2021
Member Is Offline
|
|
I had covid about yer ago(unvaccinated). It reduces smell about 80 percent but fully recovered in about 3 weeks. But other familiar reports fully loss
smell and long recovery(month)
It was original strain. Delta and omicron much less associated with loss smell
Covid in not dangerous for young people but dangerous for people 60+. In Russia excess death about 1.1 million since march 2020
[Edited on 9-1-2022 by Hexabromobenzene]
|
|
|
XeonTheMGPony
International Hazard
Posts: 1636
Registered: 5-1-2016
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Hexabromobenzene  | I had covid about yer ago(unvaccinated). It reduces smell about 80 percent but fully recovered in about 3 weeks. But other familiar reports fully loss
smell and long recovery(month)
It was original strain. Delta and omicron much less associated with loss smell
Covid in not dangerous for young people but dangerous for people 60+. In Russia excess death about 1.1 million since march 2020
[Edited on 9-1-2022 by Hexabromobenzene] |
Same got the woohuflu original, 3 to 4 days no taste or smell to speak of, recovered it in a week, for me it was an annoyingly bad cold in terms of
experience.
|
|
|
Tsjerk
International Hazard
Posts: 3022
Registered: 20-4-2005
Location: Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Mood
|
|
I read omikron infects the throat first, giving the immune system sone time to react, making the chance of severely infecting the nose and lungs
smaller. Therefore it is important to scrape the throat, although hard with the short swaps, when doing a self test. This way detecting an early
infection is easier.
I also read the long term loss of smell is likely a sterile inflammation of the nerves, or the tissue around the nerves, and can be cured with a short
high dose treatment with prednisolone (nasal spray).
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
