This Surprising Household Item Can Help You Figure Out If You Have COVID

Winter is coming and that means a couple of things: 1) It's time to cozy up at home with your favorite movie, warmest blanket, and a holiday-scented candle, and 2) Coronavirus numbers are climbing to heights we haven't seen before in this pandemic. While those thoughts might not seem related, a researcher with the Harvard Study of Adult Development has made a connection between the two. If your favorite scented candles aren't giving off their usual aromas, think twice before blaming the product: your inability to smell scented candles might be a red flag that you've got COVID. Read on to see how this discovery was sniffed out, and for more COVID news, check out This Type of Face Mask Isn't Protecting You From COVID, WHO Warns.

The connection between candles and coronavirus was originally sparked when Kate Petrova, a research assistant with the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Bryn Mawr College, was browsing social media and noticed a funny tweet, The Washington Post reports. "There are angry ladies all over Yankee Candle's site reporting that none of the candles they just got had any smell at all," Terri Nelson, an Oregon-based cartoonist and science illustrator, tweeted on Nov. 24. "I wonder if they're feeling a little hot and nothing has much taste for the last couple days too."

While the tweet might have been meant as a joke, Petrova began scouring 20,000 reviews of the most popular scented candles sold on Amazon. The results showed that reviews left in 2019 averaged between four and four and a half stars, but since the coronavirus pandemic began in Jan. 2020, most products have seen their averages drop by a full star. Unscented candle reviews, however, have remained unchanged.

"Since the beginning of 2020, customer satisfaction with scented candles has been dropping at a much faster rate compared to unscented candles," Petrova tweeted.

She noticed that customers have been specifically describing candles with terms such as "can't smell," "no scent," or "no smell"—which might signify a connection with one of COVID-19's most common symptoms, loss of smell, also known as anosmia. Petrova found that the proportion of scented candle reviews containing these terms nearly tripled from less than two percent in January to six percent in November.

"It is rare, at least in my line of work, to stumble upon an anecdotal observation that can be examined using such vast amounts of easily accessible data," said Petrova, who called the findings of her strictly casual research "strongly suggestive."

Even if you can still pick up the essence of lilac coming from your favorite candle, there are other subtle ways to tell you've caught COVID. Read on for some key signs, and for more on how your genes could be lowering your pandemic risk, check out If You Have One of These Blood Types, You May Be Safe From COVID.