25 Comments

Fascinating and your vivid description makes me wonder if Covid really was a toxin release or radiation poisoning of some sort as evidenced by your metallic taste. Another common symptom I’m hearing about is hair loss and that also brings to mind poisoning rather than infection!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks. I just think what was all the fuss about, when all it was was having to switch from Bordeaux to Bourgogne for a while.

Expand full comment

I hear you. I had to switch from wine to beer as all wine became tasteless. The horror- thank goodness for Belgian beer

Expand full comment

I've never had covid, but for decades my palate shifts between Cabernet, Melot, Zinfandel and Montapuchiano

Expand full comment

I’d guess toxic release which is a good thing if it doesn’t happen too quickly to overwhelm the body’s clearing pathways.

Expand full comment

Good thing you are a writer and not a perfumer designing nuanced fragrances. In France you'd be referred to as a "nose" with a fine sense of smell. Years ago, I read a novel about a perfumer who lived in France during the early 18th Century. From the authors description of the unsanitary conditions you can understand why snuff was a savior.

Anyway, the loss of smell associated with COVID is also prevalent when you're heavily congested and your nose is stuffed.

I clearly remember, as a child losing my taste and sense of smell every time I contracted a very bad cold. So those symptoms are not new. I'm not even convinced "long COVID" actually exists as there was so much hype triggering "COVID anxiety."

In fact, they say folks rushed to emergency rooms thinking they had COVID because of a shortness of breath, but it was just an anxiety attack.

Imagine, being intubated because you were just anxious and the hospitals were determined to secure another dime. An awful circumstance which I understand occured in some disreputable medical facilities.

Expand full comment

I went off milk when I was pregnant. Tragic situation for a tea drinker. 30 years later and I still can't drink milk and I can sense when it is about to go bad. I drink it in tea but only semi-skimmed now. Life is full of small tragedies isn't it? But it's nice to occasionally make them seem like big tragedies.

Expand full comment

Very witty

Expand full comment

Well one would expect that in Hell they can only drink Pepsi...

Expand full comment
author

Diet Pepsi ;)

Expand full comment

Bud Light

Expand full comment

Excellent, c'est un bon cru. Je lève mon verre et à ta santé!!

Expand full comment

À votre santé Thorsteinn !

Expand full comment

Appropriate because this is where he gets the good stuff www.sante.is

Expand full comment

I'm pleased for your recovery but I notice that one long covid symptom still lingers on, namely a pernicious tendency to apply feminine endings to adjectives in French where masculine would be correct. When your "cru" is "bourgeois" and your "poulet" is "truffé" draw the cork from the Cheval Blanc (sic).

Expand full comment

Lucky you, since you must be rid of "long hangover" due to the lack of tannins in Pinot Noir. Furthermore you should mentally also notice the difference in "hangover anxiety" common with claret drinkers before consuming the stuff. Physically you should also notice no shortness of breath since pinot noir can be drunk when young instead of holding your breath for years while waiting for the tannins to soften in the claret.

Expand full comment

This is satire right?

Expand full comment

I went off milk when I was pregnant. Tragic situation for a tea drinker. 30 years later and I still can't drink milk and I can sense when it is about to go bad. I drink it in tea but only semi-skimmed now. Life is full of small tragedies isn't it? But it's nice to occasionally make them seem like big tragedies.

Expand full comment

In November/December 2019 3 of 5 in my family had a very unusual illness and in the second week I became unable to taste our usual delightful organic red wine that we always had. When covid became famous in March the following year it took me about a month to realise we must have already had it. When we had the omicron in Dec’21 we gave up alcohol ( as it’s not the best for a good immune system!) but discovered how the only thing that makes sea bass worth eating is the taste and the butter it’s fried in, otherwise it’s just this really weird texture that I had to spit out!

Expand full comment

I wrote a big piece on Tim and Brandie McCain who almost-certainly had Covid in December 2019 (based on having all the symptoms and multiple later positive antibody tests).

They both lost tons of weight -Tim because he was in ICU for 28 days; his wife Branide, because she also lost her sense of smell and taste and due to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It still bothers me that no public health officials ever interviewed them or looked at their medical records. A point I kept making was that researchers could have learned many important lessons from their clinical histories. One lesson would be about the possible effects of "long Covid" - which Brandie thinks she is experiencing.

Expand full comment
author

Honestly I think for the most part long covid doesn't really exist. More likely a psychological condition due to fearmongering. Except for the loss of taste and smell. That's real.

Expand full comment

That's what Brandie had for more than a year. Everything tasted strange to her and she couldn't smell. That's why she didn't eat nearly as much and lost a ton of weight, she says.

Experts should have tested her regularly. They also should have kept giving her antibody tests - to see how long her antibodies lasted. She's now had at least three positive tests

Expand full comment
author

I never had an antibody test. This just wore off, as most things do. It is just amazing how something so inconsequential would cause all this havoc.

Expand full comment

not so funny. others lost taste or smell for months or forever and turned depressive. others had Covid in the lungs and still have breathing problems. others have persistent neurological problems, word finding issues, or rapid exhaustion. "I don't have it so it doesn't exist" is not a very smart approach. The studies that claimed it doesn't exist were trash and were quickly debunked.

Expand full comment
Error