“Supertasters” Might Be Protected Against COVID-19

Variants in a bitter taste receptor appear to be protective

This week, straight from the, that’s-just-crazy-enough-to-be-true file — a study that suggests that perception of bitter taste can predict whether you’ll catch COVID and how bad your disease will be.

And no — before you go there — this is NOT a study that says that the degree to which you lose taste AFTER you get COVID tells you how sick you’ll get. This study, appearing in JAMA Network Open looked at people before they got the disease.

OK here’s what you need to know.

First off, there are certain genetic traits that change how you perceive certain tastes. You may have heard that some people have a mutation that makes delicious cilantro taste like horrible soap. My condolences to these poor souls who can never truly enjoy guacamole.

But that’s not the only taste-linked gene. The gene of interest in this study is called T2R38. It is a bitter taste receptor, and there are essentially two flavors of the gene, one called PAV and one called AVI.