Strange Symptoms: Why COVID-19 Affects the Skin, Sense of Smell, and More

When COVID-19 first started popping up, the symptoms were described as a fever, a dry cough and sometimes shortness of breath. But now we know this disease affects so many different systems in the body - circulatory, endocrine, and even neurological. This episode of SICK answers just what it is about the COVID-19 virus that makes it give such a variety of symptoms and what we still seek to understand about its impact. Special thank you to the Cleveland Clinic for filming this interview for Seeker. » Subscribe to Seeker! » Watch more SICK | » Visit our shop at When a patient is first infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, it's usually inhaled and it begins to infect cells in the respiratory tract and produces more and more virus. From here the virus can work its way into tiny air sacs in the lungs. These air sacs are filled with a protein receptor called ACE2