text: Visualizing in deceased COVID 19 patients how SARS CoV 2 attacks the respiratory and olfactory mucosae but spares the olfactory bulb Anosmia the loss of smell is a common and often the sole symptom of COVID 19 The onset of the sequence of pathobiological events leading to olfactory dysfunction remains obscure Here we have developed a postmortem bedside surgical procedure to harvest endoscopically samples of respiratory and olfactory mucosae and whole olfactory bulbs Our cohort of 85 cases included COVID 19 patients who died a few days after infection with SARS CoV 2 enabling us to catch the virus while it was still replicating We found that sustentacular cells are the major target cell type in the olfactory mucosa We failed to find evidence for infection of olfactory sensory neurons and the parenchyma of the olfactory bulb is spared as well Thus SARS CoV 2 does not appear to be a neurotropic virus We postulate that transient insufficient support from sustentacular cells triggers transient olfactory dysfunction in COVID 19 Olfactory sensory neurons would become affected without getting infected 