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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-
That matches up with my experience - started with a cough followed by loss of taste and smell, then after a few days of that all other symptoms ramped up massively. Its now 10 days since my cough first started and its the only symptom I still have.
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I guess we'll just have to do disagree. If the various bodies (WHO, King's, PHE, ENT UK) are saying it's not worth self-isolating on the grounds of anosmia/hyposmia symptoms alone (i.e. no other key symptoms) then who am I to argue.
I can only guess that the possible gains of getting people with only anosmia/hyposmia symptoms to self-isolate (i.e. decreased likelihood of spreading) are outweighed by the negatives (e.g. greater burden for those individuals/families, and it generating a false sense of security once someone has self-isolated once if they think they are now 'safe'.)
This is why I think the current guidance for self-isolating is specifically about three major symptoms: the new continuous/dry cough, pyrexia, and breathing difficulties. As these are going to be much stronger indicators that it is this specific disease and not some other random viral infection.
Also, practically, it's pretty unusual to lose your sense of smell/taste and have no other symptoms.
Not really, it can easily happen as an after effect of a mild instance of a common cold. It was a well documented phenomenon long before Covid-19 appeared on the scene.
My anosmia has passed and none of us have had any symptoms that would have triggered self-isolation. Between us in the flat we've had over the last 3 or 4 weeks: runny noses, chesty/productive coughs but no fatigue, no unexplained aches, no temperatures, no new dry/continuous coughs, and no breathing difficulties. The only aches have been from restarting the 100 pushup programme.
For us the difference between general "stay at home" and "self-isolation" is relatively minor anyway. We haven't been self isolating but that's because none of us have had any of the key indicative symptoms. In the last 8 days we've only been out to do our daily allocation of exercise (whilst maintaining proper social distancing) and my wife has been out twice to go to the supermarket (good luck trying to maintain proper social distancing there, and no chance of getting an online delivery or click&collect around here otherwise we would). No commuting, no public transport, no visiting friends/family or other social mixing, no plans to change this.
bt
Greenbank
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."
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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.