[flagrant_taco]

A friend of mine also lost his sense of smell for weeks, he also found that he absolutely hated the taste of hot coffee for months (cold brew didn't bother him)

My original one was simply that anecdotal accounts of loss of smell didn't seem to pan out to a significant difference in frequency compared to other common cold and flu's.

[cempaka]

I could buy that maybe COVID had "some effect on smell" at about the same rate as the common viruses, but it was the intensity which made it more noticeable.

[flagrant_taco]

That's definitely possible, I was only talking about frequency. Intensity is a tricky one to track because it can only be based on self-report studies, and you only hav a frame of reference if a previous illness at least partially knocked out your sense of smell.