COVID-19 is one of the most commonly known diseases of the decade, for most people today are familiar with its many symptoms, including chills, cough, difficulty breathing, etc. Rarely, SARS-CoV-2 will affect people in ways not expected by a respiratory virus; however, people are starting to see it cause odd symptoms. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases physician at the University of California, San Francisco said that people have developed patchy tongues, puffy digits, and hair loss as a result of SARS-CoV-2.  Chin-Hong still notes that these symptoms may be less dangerous because they are capable of going away on their own.

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It is not always confirmed that COVID tongue, COVID toe, COVID eye, or other strange symptoms are due to COVID-19, but the large scale of coronavirus infections means that SARS-CoV-2 has many chances to show the public how it affects people differently. The U.S. announced they already have had 98 million cases confirmed, and Chin-Hong informed Science New that “statistically speaking, you’re going to find people with more and more weird things.” 

In October, the  Journal of Medical Case Reports released a study done by Saira Chaughtai, an Internal medicine doctor, after a patient obtained unbelievable symptoms after ten days of testing positive for COVID-19. Their tongues swell up and eventually erupted in white-ringed lesions. Chaughtai told Science News “I was like, ‘Oh my god, COVID can do anything.'”

Chin-Hong has also seen patients with unusual tongues; however, they had that looked “as if they’d chewed a mouthful of tortilla chips.”  

Changhai was perplexed about how she was going to treat her patients with COVID tongue. She began by researching scientific literature while giving her patients various types of mouthwash to help in the meantime. She even went to such great lengths in teaming up with a sports medicine doctor who shined a low-level laser light on patients’ tongues, a photobiomodulation therapy normally used to treat muscle injury. Chaughtai thought laser light therapy could heal swollen tongues because it increases blood flow. It showed good results as her patient’s tongue lesions healed even though she still feels some sensitivity. 

Another abnormal effect of COVID-19 is COVID finger or toe which causes swelling in peoples’ fingers or toes. The symptoms also included toes or fingers turning a pink, red, or purplish color. It is know to be very painful. Michael Nirenberg of Friendly Foot Care has seen at least 40 people with this symptom who have been exposed to the coronavirus. He found that fingers or toes will normally heal within a couple of months. Nirenberg told his patient to apply nitroglycerin ointment which he thinks increases blood flow to their fingers or toes. 

“We can’t predict who’s going to get what,” Chin-Hong states, for he feels people should be aware that COVID-19 is capable of causing a wide variety of symptoms. He noted that strange symptoms occur mainly with unvaccinated people. “If this is a reason why some people might get vaccinated,” Chin-Hong says, “I think that would be great,” for these symptoms may seem less severe and harmful as symptoms involving the heart or lungs, but they still can be alarming to see. 

In AP Biology this year, we discussed how there are specific receptor proteins integrated into the plasma membrane. The binding between the receptor protein and a ligand, or signaling molecule, is highly specific. Recent studies found that SARS-CoV-2 enters the cell through a specific receptor protein called ACE2. SARS-CoV-2 spike binds to its receptor human ACE2 (hACE2) and an enzyme called proteases activates it. We also talked about enzymes in AP Biology; they are proteins that function and set off reactions or processes. It is important to understand how the unfamiliar virus enters into cells to learn more about its influence on the human body; this can help scientists discover more information on how and why these strange symptoms occur.