Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is 'very rare,' WHO says

[SoonerPride]

JFC I swear the messaging is all over the map!

Anyway, this is the latest study so here ya go.......

Coronavirus patients without symptoms aren’t driving the spread of the virus, World Health Organization officials said Monday, casting doubt on concerns by some researchers that the disease could be difficult to contain due to asymptomatic infections.

Some people, particularly young and otherwise healthy individuals, who are infected by the coronavirus never develop symptoms or only develop mild symptoms. Others might not develop symptoms until days after they were actually infected.

Preliminary evidence from the earliest outbreaks indicated that the virus could spread from person-to-person contact, even if the carrier didn’t have symptoms. But WHO officials now say that while asymptomatic spread can occur, it is not the main way it’s being transmitted.

“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agency’s Geneva headquarters. “It’s very rare.”

More here..........

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/08/asymptomatic-coronavirus-patients-arent-spreading-new-infections-who-says.html

[Tipperary]

1. And last week they said we did not need to wear masks...

Then they changed their minds. I think I will not pay attention to anything they say going forward. Smh.

[LisaL]

7. And now it's not just masks, but masks with multiple layers.

[Tipperary]

11. I totally have lost faith in any of these agencies.

I think I will do what seems right to me. So far I have not gotten sick. Nor do I expect to do so.

[still_one]

2. Sounds like they are playing to trump and not to science

[SoCalNative]

3. Color me

skeptical

[customerserviceguy]

4. If I've lost complete faith in WHO

then I can imagine others have as well. Trump cutting off US funding of WHO is not going to hurt him politically as much as I thought it might.

[Tipperary]

12. This. nt

[DrToast]

5. Don't mistake Asymptomatic with Presymptomatic

It makes sense that it's rate with Asymptomatic people, because their immune system seems to handle the virus pretty well.

But this new information says nothing about presymptomatic. That is still quite common.

[LisaL]

6. One doesn't know if one is asymptomatic or presymptomatic.

WHO seems to want to make a point that people with symptoms are the ones who need to be managed in order to stop the spread.
That point is moot and void if those without symptoms (but who go on to develop those symptoms later) can infect others.

[DrToast]

8. You know by looking at history

Which is what WHO is basing this statement on.

This is one of those announcements that is for the sake of science. There isn't really anything practical that can be done with this information.

[LisaL]

9. Looking at history isn't going to help you if you are trying to stop the spread.

WHO's point appears to be that controlling symptomatic individuals is how you stop the spread. If pre-symptomatic people infect others, solely focusing on symptomatic individuals is not going to stop the spread.

[DrToast]

10. It tells you how to best deploy resources

“What we really want to be focused on is following the symptomatic cases,” Van Kerkhove said. “If we actually followed all of the symptomatic cases, isolated those cases, followed the contacts and quarantined those contacts, we would drastically reduce” the outbreak.

When you have a limited amount of contact tracers, you get more bang for your buck by focusing on those who were in contact symptomatic cases.

[ecstatic]

13. Recently, a study said that people who had recovered but were still testing positive may not be

contagious. Perhaps different circumstances are being conflated now? Or maybe we're observing the virus die in real time.

[Beringia]

14. They don't say much in this article

Why is it rare to transmit the virus if you are asymptomatic. Because you carry less viral load or what?