You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hey everybody, Emily Quang here.

A curious symptom of COVID-19 that can stick with patients for a long time is loss of smell.

You may remember it was around this time last year that we dropped an episode about doctors

reporting loss of smell in people who later tested positive for COVID-19.

Now loss of smell is recognized as an official symptom.

But researchers don't know exactly how prevalent anosmia loss of smell and hyposmia partial

loss of smell is.

But one European study found that 86% of patients with mild COVID cases were reported

losing their sense of smell.

And while most recovered it, some didn't.

This has given new life to a very specific treatment.

Smell training.

It's like physical therapy, but for your nose done regularly over weeks or maybe months.

And Sarah Zhang, science reporter for The Atlantic, wanted to know more about it.

How does it work?

And does it actually work?

One of the smell trainees she talked to is Ruby Martinez in Texas.

So Sarah, let's start with stories from some of the folks you talked to who lost their

sense of smell.

Maybe let's start with Ruby Martinez.

What happened with her?

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