The site could be up and running in a couple of weeks and widely available, she said.Ī much larger second research study has already been approved, though it’s also not yet funded, through Yale University.
A Montreal web designer has already contacted her and offered to donate the creation of a website. Small is hoping for about $50,000 in funding - through her not-for-profit Modern Diet and Physiology Research Labratory - to hire at least a part-time data analyst and pay for other business and legal costs. The data collected will be de-identified and over time would build up information that could be fed back into the survey. The at-home olfactory test will likely be done through a website and involve a brief survey of about four questions asking respondents to rate their general ability to detect scents, note any change in the ability to smell, rate the intensity of the smell of the peanut butter, and finally rate the intensity of the vinegar. Sense of smell can deteriorate slowly without a person readily noticing. If over the duration of testing, the pure scent of the peanut butter fades, but the vinegar continues to trigger the nasal passages, it’s a likely sign that someone’s sense of smell is deteriorating. These items - called pure odorants - stimulate olfactory senses without triggering the trigeminal nerve, which irritates or tickles the nasal passage.Īs a control measure, a complementary test - sniffing vinegar, rubbing alcohol or coffee, for instance - would trigger irritation in the nasal passages. (Peanut butter has also been used to detect the loss of smell in Alzheimer’s patients.) To make a test that is readily available, safe and affordable, Small thought about everyday pantry items: peanut or nut butters, jam or jelly. The smell test could also be used for at-home or at-business screening, she said. “So the real key then to stopping the spread of the disease is to identify those people.” “A single person who doesn’t know they are carrying the disease and infecting people can infect a ton of people,” she said.
#PEANUT BUTTER SHOT DRIVER#
Bonnie Henry has said that the literature on COVID-19 suggests asymptomatic spread is not a major driver and the vast majority of transmission happens when people know they are sick, although she noted this week “the jury is still out.”īut Small said even if it’s just a small number of people, those who are asymptomatic but have smell loss could be flagged and prioritized for testing, or at least have the option to self-isolate. Given the prolific transmission of the deadly virus, which has infected more than 2.5 million people around the world, early detection in people with no classic symptoms is important. Typical symptoms of the virus include fever, fatigue, cough and difficulty breathing, but initial loss of smell is one of a number of other symptoms that have been reported, including abdominal pain and nausea. “That’s when the lightbulb went off,” Small said. The next day, Small read about people in London, England, showing up at ear, nose and throat clinics because of a loss of smell, only to later test positive for COVID-19. The three were enjoying Saturday afternoon cocktails via Zoom when the discussion shifted to COVID-19 symptoms, including reports of a loss of smell or taste. The idea stemmed from a conversation in March with two of Small’s friends: Rachel Herz, a Canadian adjunct professor in psychiatry and human behaviour at Brown University in Rhode Island, and Theresa White, a sensory psychology expert at Le Moyne College in New York. “So if there is odour loss with some - even if it’s only a small percentage of people - identifying them as carriers would be significant.” “Identifying asymptomatic carriers is absolutely critical in stopping the progression of the pandemic, I believe,” Small said. Peanut butter and jam make for a great sandwich pairing, but they’re also key ingredients in some novel research - a sniff test to identify otherwise asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers.ĭana Small, 48, a Victoria-born psychologist and neuroscientist who teaches psychology and psychiatry at Yale University, says if loss of smell is an early symptom of COVID-19, a test using simple ingredients found at home could lead to early detection.