Researchers at Baton Rouge General say a taste test may predict how vulnerable a person is to severe illness from COVID-19. Doctor Henry Barham, a rhinologist, says they have found that people who have trouble detecting certain bitter flavors are at a higher risk for developing more symptoms.
“You know initially we thought it was just a loss of smell and test but it looked like it was sort of predictive of how people would do” said Barham.
The loss of taste and smell are hallmark symptoms of COVID-19 patients.
Barham says their initial study involved 100 people who had COVID. He says the second study that’s ongoing involves 5,000 people as they try to determine if a taste test can predict COVID-19 severity.
“And then you follow them until they get COVID and then you follow their results if it was truly predictive of their outcome and that’s the big study that’s going on now,” said Barham.
Barham also notes that as people get older they lose the ability to taste as well.
“Which coincides with the disease profile that COVID appears to hit in an older group and obviously comorbidities do factor in, but comorbidities in age appear to be the big one,” said Barham.
Barham says even if you test as a “supertaster” you should still get the vaccine once it becomes available.
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