What happened
- The University of Queensland (UQ) announced on October 20, 2026 a study led by Daniel Hwang, of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, published in Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology.
- The team surveyed 1,352 vaccinated people in 52 countries between May 2022 and August 2023. About half had smell or taste changes after covid.
- More than 90% noticed no change in smell or taste after vaccination.
- Some people with parosmia, phantosmia or distorted taste reported improvement. Worsening was relatively uncommon.
Why it matters
- The study began with posts in an online support group suggesting vaccination improved smells. Its answer is that, for most, nothing changes, neither for better nor worse.
- For clinics and doctors in Chile, which vaccinated a large part of the population, it helps guide someone with prolonged symptoms who doubts getting revaccinated: the vaccine does not appear to worsen the condition.
- It is observational. It cannot establish that the vaccine produced the improvements, and natural recovery may explain them.
The number
1,352 people from 52 countries; more than 90% noticed no change after vaccination.
Context
Loss of smell and taste was one of covid-19’s characteristic symptoms. In some people it persists for months or years, with distortions such as parosmia, which changes the smell of everyday things. The research began with anecdotal comments in a Facebook group, an origin the authors themselves acknowledge. In other health fronts, recent work on the circadian subtype of depression in Sydney and on Alzheimer-like changes in ALS shares the same logic: surveys and large cohorts before controlled trials.
What’s next
- Controlled trials testing whether the vaccine affects smell recovery.
- No announced timeline for a study with follow-up over time.
- The data are from 2022 and 2023, so they do not cover later variants and vaccines.
Bottom line
The result reassures more than it informs: the question was whether the vaccine worsens or improves smell, and the answer is that it almost always does nothing. In public health, that is also a finding.
Sources
- UQ News — Vaccination has little impact on post-COVID smell and taste issues — October 20, 2026
- Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology — DOI 10.1002/lio2.70589
- Image: Ashley Van Haeften, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Edited by Rodrigo Cornejo. How we select and verify: who writes these notes.
