Anosmia is the medical name for a sudden loss of smell | Image via iStock
Declassified
Smell can play an important role in politics.
Welcome to Declassified, a weekly column looking at the lighter side of politics.
(Important note: I’m not a doctor but I have set my Zoom background to ‘operating theater’)
Somebody notify Ed Sheeran fans! Having no sense of taste has been added to the U.K.’s coronavirus symptoms list. The move came weeks after experts first raised concerns that many cases were being missed because a lack of taste wasn’t part of the British government’s definition of what patients may experience when suffering with COVID-19.
Now, anyone suffering a sudden loss of taste should self-isolate for seven days to reduce the risk of spreading the infection, according to England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam. The same applies to anyone experiencing a sudden loss of smell or, to use its medical name, anosmia (and I always thought Anosmia was one of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s children). Mind you, not being able to smell could come in handy, as the U.K. is considering testing sewage for the presence of the coronavirus as part of its national epidemic-monitoring program.
Of course smell can play an important part in politics. According to a study published in the American Journal of Political Science, people are more attracted to those who share their political views. The researchers found that greater “disgust sensitivity … predicts more conservative positions, particularly around issues involving morality and sexual reproduction.”
Researchers at Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Italy, also found a link between a person’s sensitivity to certain smells and them being sympathetic to right-wing views.
So if you want to avoid rabid right-wingers, make sure you have a piece of blue cheese in your pocket at all times.
Smell has other political uses. Ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni once spent more than $40,000 in a year on gifts for former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, including perfume from the swanky Bonpoint boutique and cologne by Frédéric Malle. That same year, Sarko also bought a Louis Vuitton bag embossed with “BO” which, as well as being Obama’s initials, is also, at least in British English, shorthand for unpleasant body odor!
And of course, with crushing inevitability, you can buy a Donald Trump fragrance, which is presumably 90 percent hydroxychloroquine and, in the words of one Amazon reviewer, “kind of smells like urine.”
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Thanks for all the entries. Here’s the best from our post bag (there’s no prize except for the gift of laughter, which I think we can all agree is far more valuable than cash or booze).
“Is a game of limbo out of the question?” by Aleksandra Chadaj
Paul Dallison is POLITICO‘s slot news editor.
