Chronic olfactory dysfunction, both hyposmia and parosmia, from the COVID-19 pandemic isa growing public health crisis, affecting up to 1.2 million people in the United States.Olfactory dysfunction significantly impacts one's quality of life by decreasing theenjoyment of foods, creating environmental safety concerns, and affecting one's abilityto perform specific jobs. Olfactory loss is also an independent predictor of anxiety,depression, and mortality.Recent research suggests that parosmia, more so than hyposmia, can increase anxiety,depression, and even suicidal ideation. While the pandemic has advanced the scientificcommunity's interest in combating the burgeoning health crisis, few effective treatmentscurrently exist for olfactory dysfunction. Persistent symptoms after an acute COVID-19infection, or "Long COVID" symptoms, have been hypothesized to result from sympatheticnervous system dysfunction. Stellate ganglion blocks have been proposed to treat thishyper-sympathetic activation by blocking the sympathetic neuronal firing and resettingthe balance of the autonomic nervous system. Studies before the COVID-19 pandemic havesupported a beneficial effect of stellate ganglion blocks on olfactory dysfunction, andrecent news reports and a published case series have described a dramatic benefit in botholfactory function and other long COVID symptoms in patients receiving stellate ganglionblocks. A previous pilot study using stellate ganglion blocks of 20 participants withpersistent COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction resulted in modest improvements in subjectiveolfactory function, smell identification, and olfactory-specific quality of life, but itlacked a control group.Therefore, we propose a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trialassessing the efficacy of a stellate ganglion block with Lidocaine versus salineinjection in up to 50 participants with persistent COVID-19-associated olfactorydysfunction.