Day 489: The Nose Knows

Genetic testing company 23andMe has found a genetic link to COVID anosmia—not as much of a coup as their blood type results but at least not the embarassment of their ice cream study (with the choices strawberry, chocolate, vanilla or you just don't like ice cream, do you?):

For these findings, the researchers again used data from more than one million people who consented to participate in 23andMe’s COVID-19 Study. By examining the differences in the genome between COVID-19 cases who did and did not experience loss of taste or smell, our scientists identified an association on chromosome 4 near the olfactory genes UGT2A1 and UGT2A2 (Figure 1 and Figure 2a).

The study is in preprint, and the genetic variant they found only makes one "about [sic] 11.5 percent more likely to lose their sense of smell or taste if infected". They also share some interesting data about anosmia by age: younger people are more likely to experience it, even controlling for general loss of smell among the elderly.

Massachusetts cases were up a fiftieth of a percentage point yesterday.