COVID Has Changed the Way I Eat. Don’t Take Chances with Omicron

Indian writer Nona Uppal details her experience of contracting COVID-19 and handling the aftermath in her personal essay, “COVID Has Changed the Way I Eat. Don’t Take Chances with Omicron.” After recovering in April 2021, during a worldwide surge in cases, Uppal developed parosmia – a condition where normal smells take on a new, often unpleasant, odor. She writes: “A month into recovery, I started noticing a rude cacophony of pungent smells that were mildly rotten, then sometimes metallic after they entered my nose. Desperate for answers, my investigations concluded that everything stank — but onions and garlic were the primary culprits.” Despite the mildness of her bout with coronavirus, she continued to be plagued by this side effect at the time of writing her story in 2022.

Although not life-threatening, parosmia impacts Uppal’s quality of life, as it makes it difficult to eat or even be near food. With few official resources on the condition, Uppal took it upon herself to contact other women suffering from parosmia to discuss their experiences and take steps toward addressing this new impairment. They criticize the lack of information on the condition, which only fueled their distress. Not aware that parosmia was a symptom of Long COVID, many worried the condition would become permanent. Uppal concludes that their experiences with parosmia should be a lesson to take COVID-19, and specifically the Omicron variant, seriously rather than assume its relatively “mild” nature means there is no cause for concern, while also drawing attention to the need for official investigation into Long COVID.