Physiological plausibility of lower viral load in patients with COVID-19 and olfactory/gustatory dysfunction

We read with interest the retrospective cohort study by Taziki Balajelini et al. [1], which investigated the relationship between viral load and the incidences of olfactory dysfunction (OD) and gustatory dysfunction (GD) in patients with COVID-19. In the study, the authors observed a significantly higher (p=0.001) mean cycle threshold (Ct) value of RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 between patients with (28.13±4.55) and without OD (26.91±4.49). The Ct values of the RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 correlate inversely with the viral load, where low Ct values indicate high viral loads and vice versa; therefore, the findings of the study suggest a lower viral load in patients with OD.