We very much appreciated the letters from Machado et al. and are pleased to have inspired these interesting thoughts. The advent of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has significantly reduced the prevalence of smell and taste dysfunction associated with COVID-19. However, approximately 30% of individuals affected by COVID-19 driven by this variant still reported olfactory or gustatory impairment during the acute phase of the disease. Moreover, when psychophysically evaluated, patients affected by the Omicron variant infection demonstrated a significantly higher prevalence of smell dysfunction than that observed in controls.
