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I don't agree that people shouldn't quarantine if they lose their sense of smell/taste.
Even if that's the only symptom? Not even King's are suggesting that:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52111606
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The King's researchers say loss of smell and taste might be useful extra symptoms to watch for, perhaps not on their own but alongside other important ones like cough and fever.Lead researcher Prof Tim Spector said: "When combined with other symptoms, people with loss of smell and taste appear to be three times more likely to have contracted Covid-19 according to our data, and should therefore self-isolate for seven days to reduce the spread of the disease."
"If you should quarantine if you have cough/fever anyway then anosmia/hyposmia is irrelevant as it doesn't change the decision and no-one (Kings, ENT UK, WHO, PHE) suggest quarantining yourself if anosmia/hyposmia is your only symptom. "Experts say there's not enough evidence yet."
I can see why journo's would like it, it makes a good headline/soundbite, but there doesn't seem to be anything to back it up.
Greenbank-
Spector said himself on the Today programme this morning that anecdotally loss of smell and taste is often a precursor to other symptoms.
But to answer your question directly, yes, I think so. We're trying to avoid spreading it round and we only know what we know. Yes it would be great to have more evidence, better quality evidence, but we don't have that yet.
Also, practically, it's pretty unusual to lose your sense of smell/taste and have no other symptoms.
Fox
I don't agree that people shouldn't quarantine if they lose their sense of smell/taste.
In the absence of widespread testing any decision to self-isolate is made with the knowledge that it may well not be COVID-19, but it could be.
OK, this study is based on self-reporting. But as 59% who said they were COVID-19 positive reported loss of smell and taste, and these results were much stronger in predicting a positive COVID-19 diagnosis than self-reported fever, the only sensible thing to do if you do have anosmia/hyposmia is to self-isolate, surely?