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Comment by hamandcheese | Hacker News Reader

I tested positive for covid and experienced very mild symptoms - runny nose, slight dizziness. I didn’t experience any noticeable loss of taste.

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I think this is a situation where having loss of smell is a strong indicator of having COVID, but not having loss of smell doesn't imply testing negative.

Exactly. Losing your sense of smell is a strange and specific enough thing that, in this study, 80% of the people who volunteered because they noticed a loss of smell tested positive for COVID. But that doesn't mean 80% of people with COVID lose their sense of smell - other studies report "that the incidence rate of olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19 patients varies from 33.9–68%".

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7265845/

Hm, I've read repeatedly that runny nose isn't a COVID symptom, so that's interesting.

I say that as someone with a runny nose this week and dizziness last week...

I have lost smell and taste completely for 3 days, to the point it started in influence my eating habits. I felt hungry, but I'd feel full as soon as I started eating, so I was eating around 30% of the usual intake.

Same. It was just like a cold but a bit longer than usual, temperatures never exceeded 37.5.

Fatigue continued for two something weeks after the infection cleared though. My productivity wasn't remotely at it's best.

Yes, I was rather fatigued for several weeks as well, but mostly worked (remotely) through it.

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