Bad reviews of Yankee Candle may illustrate Covid-19 trends. 

As we enter the second winter of our discontent, also known as “the Covid-19 pandemic,” we’re revisited not only by brutal cold and spikes in infections, but one of the weirder cultural side effects of our ongoing war with this stupid virus: bad reviews of Yankee Candle.

fresh wave of bad reviews for yankee candles pic.twitter.com/1mlandB78I

For the uninitiated, Yankee Candles are a brand of candle known for their extremely potent scents. For the extremely uninitiated, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, and one of the first symptoms of Covid-19 is loss of smell. Not sure how you missed that, it’s been pretty big news.

You can probably see where this is going: during spikes in Covid-19 infections, you see a corresponding spike in negative reviews of Yankee Candles – specifically ones where the reviewer complains that the candle smells wrong or has no smell at all. 

And this isn’t just a couple anecdotes or prank reviews: there’s a real, observable trend. Kate Petrova, a research assistant at the Harvard Study of Adult Development, scraped 20,000 reviews of the most popular scented candles on Amazon and found that it was real. “It’s rare… to stumble upon an anecdotal observation that can be examined using such vast amounts of easily accessible data,” she told “The Washington Post.”

Yankee Candle Large Jar Candle, Mistletoe

While it’s far from the only weird side effect of the ongoing global disaster, it is more tragic that it first appears: over a million Americans have lost their sense of smell, a symptom called “anosmia,” due to the virus – and it’s unclear if they’ll get it back. The most recent studies indicate that if you haven’t regained your sense of smell after six months, your odds of ever getting it back drop to one in five.

That same loss of smell, when it first appears, may also be one of the best predictors of infection.

blue line: daily COVID cases in the USA red line: bad reviews of Yankee Candles on Amazon saying "they don't have any scent" sources: google and https://t.co/oZm6ro0E1S pic.twitter.com/8U2XkH0RT4

As has been the case for two years now, the best way to prevent Covid-19 infections is to get vaccinated, receive your booster, and wear a mask.

Joshua Sargent is the Senior News Editor, Commerce, for Hearst Newspapers. Before this job he wrote video games and comedy, which probably just made you say "ah, yeah, that makes sense."

Josh can play the guitar solo from Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" almost exactly right and lives in Brooklyn, NY with a cat that "belongs" to him according to the "law."

Email him at josh.sargent@hearst.com.