Hacker News Reader

Comment by Reason077 | Hacker News Reader

For some people I think this is just a normal response to respiratory viruses. My ex would swear she lost her sense of smell (and taste) whenever she had a cold.

This is not something I can recall experiencing, though. If anything, my sense of smell seems enhanced when I'm sick. Strong smells often seem more intense and make me feel worse, even smells that normally wouldn't bother me much.

View on HN

The "common cold" virus is also a coronavirus, so that makes sense. That would still help in differentiating if you have the flu or Covid-19. I only heard of getting more sensitive to smells in connection with migraine (totally anecdotal evidence)...

Rhinovirus is another well known cause for a common cold. A quick search result: webmd [1] gives 10%-40% for rhinovirus, 20% for coronavirus. CDC [2] has rhinovirus as the most common cause, and adds: “ Other viruses that can cause colds include respiratory syncytial virus, human parainfluenza viruses, adenovirus, human coronaviruses, and human metapneumovirus.”

[1] https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_ca...

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/features/rhinoviruses/index.html

In fact some "common cold" coronaviruses are really quite similar to SARS-ncov-2.

hcov-NL63's protein spike, for example, binds to the same ACE2 receptor, and is also believed to be a polymorphism of bat and civet coronaviruses. It's also known to cause pneumonia in immunocompromised patients.

But of course, a big difference is that hcov-NL63 has probably been circulating in humans for centuries, so we tend to acquire immunity to it by being exposed as children.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com