How Sniffing Peanut Butter Can Save Lives of Asymptomatic COVID-19 Carriers

Peanut butter is not just a delicious spread, it can also identify asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers through a sniff test.

A Victoria-born psychologist and neuroscientist, Dana Small, who teaches psychology and psychiatry at Yale University, says that if a loss of smell is an early symptom of COVID-19, a test using simple ingredients found at home could lead to early detection.

Simple way to identify asymptomatic carriers

Small stated that identifying asymptomatic carriers is very critical in stopping the spread of the virus. Odor loss with some identifying them as carriers will make a difference. The idea started from a conversation in March with two of Small's friends, Rachel Herz who is a Canadian adjunct professor in psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Rhode Island, and Theresa White, a sensory psychology expert at Le Moyne College in New York.

They discussed the symptoms of COVID-19 including reports of loss of smell or taste. Small read about people in England the following day, about patients who lose their sense of smell only to test positive for COVID-19 later.

The known symptoms of the virus include fatigue, fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing, but the initial loss of smell is one of a number of other symptoms that have been reported, including nausea and abdominal pain.

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Dr. Bonnie Henry, a provincial health officer, stated that the literature on COVID-19 suggests asymptomatic spread is not a major driver and the vast majority of transmission happens when people know that they are sick, although she noted that the jury is still out.

However, Small said that even if it is 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. She said that a single person who does not know that they are carrying the disease and infecting people can infect a ton of people. So the real key then is to stop the spread of the virus and to identify the asymptomatic patients.

The smell test

Items such as peanut butter, jam, or jelly are called pure odorants as it stimulates olfactory senses without triggering the trigeminal nerve, which irritates or tickles the nasal passage. A complementary test, like sniffing coffee or vinegar, would trigger irritation in the nasal passages.

If over the duration of the smell test, the pure scent of the peanut butter fades, but the vinegar continues to trigger the nasal passages, it is a likely sign that someone's sense of smell is deteriorating. The sense of smell can deteriorate slowly without a person readily noticing.

An at-home olfactory test can be done through a website and it will involve a brief survey that consists of 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 to rate the intensity of the vinegar. The data collected will be de-identified and it would build up information that could be fed back into the survey.

Small is hoping for funding of about $50,000 through her not-for-profit Modern Diet and Physiology Research Laboratory to hire at least a part-time data analyst and pay for other business and legal costs. A web designer has already contacted her and offered to donate the creation of a website.