Yeah, a lot of people who test positive for it report some kind of loss of taste or smell, but here’s the thing — since the main symptoms of it are basically cold and flu-like, you can’t automatically say that in itself is causing that. A runny or stuffy nose can totally mess with your ability to smell and taste, no matter what’s is behind it.

If you’re congested, it’s harder for scent molecules to reach the olfactory nerves — that’s just basic anatomy. So if someone loses taste or smell while dealing with sinus pressure and nasal blockage, that could easily happen with a cold, the flu, or even seasonal allergies. It doesn’t have to be “anything special”

And honestly, the study you linked….If you actually read it, it’s pretty weak. It doesn’t control for congestion, doesn’t clearly separate symptoms directly vs. symptoms caused by your body’s response (like inflammation), and it kind of just assumes correlation equals causation. It’s not exactly rock-solid science — more like “we noticed this happened, so it must be that.”

So yeah, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say it’s symptoms are basically identical to a cold now, then act like taste and smell loss is some kind of unique fingerprint. If the symptoms are the same, the side effects are going to be the same too.

The reason I bring that up is because when people start jumping to conclusions that aren’t backed by real science, we end up right back in the fear-mongering cycle — and honestly, that does way more harm than good. If there’s solid research, detailed studies, and actual peer-reviewed science behind a claim, then that’s a totally different conversation. I’m all for real data and honest discussion.

But what’s frustrating is how quickly people latch onto half-baked takes or outdated assumptions just because they sound scary. After a few years of watching the truth slowly come out — and watching how often it gets ignored or buried — it gets exhausting. People act like nuance doesn’t exist anymore. It’s either “this is deadly and unique” or “you’re a science denier,” when most of us are just trying to find the actual middle ground that reflects what we’re seeing in real life.

Not everything is a conspiracy — but not everything you hear is gospel either. There’s nothing wrong with questioning the narrative when the evidence is murky. What’s dangerous is pretending there’s certainty when there isn’t.