When 25-year-old Shannon Roche bit into a sour-cream-and-onion potato chip and couldn't taste it, she suddenly knew she had COVID-19.
She then ran to the bathroom right after and grabbed her perfume. “I sprayed every inch of my body and couldn’t smell it,” said Roche. Soon after, on July 8th, Roche and her roommate both tested positive for coronavirus in Orlando, FL.
Instead of being down about it, though, the two spent the next two weeks quarantined to their townhouse making hilarious TikToks of them trying gross foods and posting the resulting videos.
A loss of taste and smell are early indicators of COVID-19, especially in younger patients, so the pair decided to poke a little fun at their otherwise unfortunate situation.
Homemade videos show the roommates tasting hot sauce, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and booze, while blindfolded. Minced garlic, for example?
"I knew what it was just by the texture," Roche said. Not so with raw onion, which she mistook for "celery or a cracker."
Now, two months later, Roche says her tastebuds are still a little mixed up. "I can't taste pumpkin flavors, but I can taste my caramel iced coffee," she says.
It was because of TikTok that she knew to get tested in the first place when one morning she couldn’t taste the coffee she always gets at Dunkin’. Fans of the TikTok videos said they actually helped combat irresponsible behavior by college students by building awareness of COVID-19’s lesser-known symptoms.