For those 15 minutes, I am not working; I am not reading the news on my phone; I am not doomscrolling through Twitter; I am not being “productive” (read: checking my email, learning Spanish on Duolingo, checking my email again). The process has proved more enjoyable and rewarding than any meditation I have ever tried. Sometimes when I close my eyes while sniffing, I’m transported to India or Lebanon or Mexico, on a sensory tour of multiple cultures and culinary ideas that has taken my brain far beyond the confines of quarantine in New Jersey.

Gabe Friedman uses his parents' spice cabinet to retrain his nose after Covid-19 took his sense of smell. Read more in The World in My Nose: After COVID stole my ability to smell, I found a solution that reawakened my senses—and much more at Slate.

For most people, smell, taste and chemesthesis recover within weeks. In a study published last July, 72% of people with COVID-19 who had olfactory dysfunction reported that they recovered their sense of smell after a month, as did 84% of people with taste dysfunction. Claire Hopkins, an ear, nose and throat consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, and her colleagues similarly observed a speedy return of the senses: they followed 202 patients for a month, and found that 49% reported complete recovery over that time, and a further 41% reported an improvement.

— Read more in COVID’s toll on smell and taste: what scientists do and don’t know at Nature.

British scientists studied the experiences of 9,000 Covid-19 patients who joined a Facebook support group set up by the charity group AbScent between March 24 and September 30. Many members said they had not only lost pleasure in eating, but also in socializing. The loss had weakened their bonds with other people, affecting intimate relationships and leaving them feeling isolated, even detached from reality.

— Another article, if you can stand it, about Covid-related anosmia. Read more in Some Covid Survivors Haunted by Loss of Smell and Taste at The New York Times. Hat tip to thomkallor!

I yearn to smell black truffles at Lusardi’s on the Upper East Side that always reminded me of the pungent scent of wet earth and sex. The comforting musty smell of old used books at the Strand, and the smell of wet dog and traces of skunky marijuana swirling past me at Tompkins Square Park that kept me grounded. I’ve tried to make a list of some of my favorite scents before they fade from my memory. But every day, I find new things that I’ll miss.

— Read more in Covid Stole My Sense of Smell. The City’s Not the Same. at The New York Times.

You get more and more desperate. I started sniffing in garbage cans. You know, you want to sniff strangers’ armpits because you just can’t smell anything. … I eventually went home and sprayed my wife’s Chanel No. 5 directly into my face. Couldn’t smell a thing, but I did go blind!

— Actor Hugh Grant on losing his sense of smell while he had Covid-19 earlier this year. Read more in Hugh Grant Jokes That He’s ‘Rather Proud’ of His Coronavirus Antibodies After Secret Battle at US Magazine (or watch the interview with Colbert that triggered this article). Hat tip to tiffanie!