"Even without having any other symptoms, including congestion, (Covid-19 patients) report that they cannot smell or taste."

And while most people regain their sense of smell or taste within days to weeks, Wen said, "there are still many who have not regained their sense of smell after months."

People still need to eat, of course, and they're modifying their meals as a result.

Putting new flavor combinations on the table

A few days after testing positive for the virus in mid-December, Althea Mullarkey, 53, suddenly realized she could no longer smell the strong gardenia scent of her shampoo.

She tore through the house, sniffing everything she could find, and realized her sense of smell had vanished.

The self-described foodie who lives in New York's Hudson Valley said she no longer likes the mouthfeel of eggs, since she can't taste them.

"You can get the acid, heat, even saltiness, but not the layers of things like cilantro and chipotle."

Most of our sense of what we think of as taste, Becker said, isn't really taste at all.

"All the interesting things about our food that we use to identify things like cheese and fruits and chocolate and coffee are not done with our mouth," she said.

When recovery happens, sometimes the wires can get crossed."

While it's still unknown why people lose their sense of smell with Covid-19, Wen said "it's thought that the coronavirus doesn't affect nerve cells that control smell but rather the cells around them."

That, too, is considered good news for recovery, since supporting cells regenerate easier than neurons.

"When the cells grow back, it might take some time and retraining to get back to normal," she said.

Scent training can help

Retraining her sense of smell is something that Kaya Cheshire — who said she's still missing 90% of her sense of smell since contracting a mild case of Covid-19 last July — has been trying out, along with adding far more herbs and spices than usual to her food.

Becker said it's a tactic she recommends to patients since there is no cure for anosmia.

"Retraining your brain to what things smell like so you can remember is a bit mysterious," she said.