Day 52: Anosmia Joins the Symptom List

Today the world exceeded 350,000 cases, 15,000 deaths, and 100,000 recoveries. Italy is eyeing 60,000 cases, which will be 0.1% of their total population. The US is at 35,000 cases and Spain, a nation of fewer than 47 million souls, is attempting to catch up to us with over 33,000 cases. Germany has pulled ahead of Iran despite their similar populations (around 80 million) and Iran's significant head start. France is falling behind.

In Massachusetts, yesterday's mysterious Duke/Nantucket combined counties case has turned out to be on Nantucket, and the entire island is now sheltering in place. The governor discouraged people from traveling to the islands, then also discouraged the latest fad, traveling across the mainland in search of the ever-more-elusive haircut, by shutting down all non-essential services. FYI: Packies are essential, recreational marijuana dispensaries are not.

One of the more interesting symptoms to emerge from the pandemic is post-viral anosmia or hyposmia, most notably in otherwise asymptomatic patients. If you want to read a bunch of anecdotal reports of the loss of the sense of smell (and therefore of much of the sense of taste), see yesterday's Hacker News thread inspired by the ENT UK post. According to the anecdotal evidence, most people recover their senses eventually.

Also on the science front, last week Cell Discovery finally posted a letter about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (a milder form of everyone's favorite repurposed malaria drug, chloroquine) against coronavirus in vitro.

P.S. Today's numbers are in: Massachusetts is at 777 cases total (+131, or 20%), with no new deaths. There were seven more travel cases, 21 more cases of local transmission, and now almost 500 unsourced cases. My county (Middlesex) still leads the pack with 232 cases, well over Boston proper (Suffolk, 154) or anywhere else. Dukes County (Martha's Vineyard) remains free of disease.

Locals should note that besides the state closing for non-essential business tomorrow, indoor gatherings are now limited to 10 persons. Outdoor gatherings are allowed, but I saw a lot of parks padlocked today anyway.

P.P.S. The death count for today is actually 9, up 4 over yesterday. PlagueBlog could swear the PDF said 5 this afternoon. Also, more news sources cannot count the counties of Massachusetts.