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Background. As evidence emerged that loss of taste and/or loss of smell is frequently triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we investigated whether Google searches volume for these two disease-specific symptoms could be associated with disease epidemiology in United States (US). Materials and Methods. We performed an electronic search in Google Trends using the keywords \'taste loss\' and \'smell loss\' within the US. The Google searches volume was correlated with the number of new weekly cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country. Results. The weekly Google searches for taste and smell loss exhibited a trend similar to that of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections in the US. A nearly perfect correlation was found between Google Trends scores of taste and smell loss (r=0.98; 95% CI, 0.97-0.99; p<0.001). Although a significant association was found between Google searches for the two symptoms and the concomitant number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections reported during the same week, the correlation improved over time. The highest correlation was found comparing Google Trends scores for taste or smell loss and the number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections two weeks later. The correlation coefficient of summing Google Trends scores for the two symptoms and the number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections two weeks later was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.68-0.90; p<0.001), and was associated 0.89 diagnostic accuracy. Conclusions. These findings suggest that Google searches numbers for olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions may help predicting the epidemiological trajectory of COVID-19 early before official reporting.
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?:doi
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10.1101/2020.11.09.20228510
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document_parses/pdf_json/eff85c83575ef5f881ad83fc198bdb2824edcabe.json
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Google Searches for Taste and Smell Loss Anticipate Covid-19 Epidemiology
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