A long COVID symptom can include permanent loss of smell. Getty Images

Long COVID makes me think about a phrase in a “Sound of Music” song, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”: “How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?” To scientists studying long COVID, that’s what it must feel like to find the causes and treatment.

It’s estimated that, since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, about 400 million people worldwide have experienced post-viral illness, or what we commonly call long COVID. In the U.S., the figure is about 20 million, according to Yale Medicine.

One of them is Marianne Rubin, a North Shore resident, who lost her sense of taste and smell after her second bout with COVID, and it never returned. “I’m not alone with this particular symptom, but not many places are researching

See Full Page