Asymptomatic vs Carrier: finally put my finger on what bothers me about the term "asymptomatic"

[Hekate]

It sounds so benign. Hey, you are not sick, so why should you quarantine for two miserable weeks, or get retested, or any of that nonsense?

Well, let me put it this way: Typhoid Mary was asymptomatic. And people around her got sick as dogs from Typhoid Fever and some of them died.

Typhoid Mary was a carrier.

Can Dr Fauci and the media help public awareness by bringing back an old word?

[RockRaven]

1. Or "spreader" because that's what makes it everyone else's business...

If people were merely carriers but never spread it then nobody would care.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. What would you suggest the term be, if not "asymptomatic"?

It really is the correct word here. It also covers the fact that an asymptomatic carrier is almost always completely unaware they actually have and are spreading the disease.

[Hekate]

3. As I said, "asymptomatic" sounds totally benign to others. I haven't heard one person call it...

....“asymptomatic carrier.” Media people and the docs they interview all leave the second word off.

[localroger]

4. Calling someone asymptomatic implies that they have a disease

But it also explains why you can't tell they have the disease. If the disease is COVID then an asymptimatic person will indeed be contagious as hell, and there's not really any other context where you'd use the word. I think it's fine and anyone who is reading it as "more benign" is simply reading it wrong.

[Hekate]

5. Well, tell my SIL and my sister's SIL and some others I can think of right off the bat....

They are NOT hearing what you and I are hearing. I hear “contagious” and they hear “not sick.”

[localroger]

9. Well tell them about the guy you met on the intertubes who is asymptomatic -- me

I have asymptomatic coronary artery disease, also known as silent ischemia. I got diagnosed because I had a sudden serious and inexplicable jump in my blood pressure from 140/90-ish to 190/120, ALL THE TIME. And I had no symptoms. The cardiologist who installed my stent was visibly surprised in the followup to my angiogram that my heart was healthy and I'd never had a heart attack. "People with silent ischemia tend to have ... poor outcomes," he said rather seriously. Being asymptomatic is not a good thing. It means you don't know how sick you are. I had a 75% blocked LAD, the artery merrily nicknamed the "widowmaker." Had I allowed the disease to worsen because I didn't know about it my very first symptom might have been one of the ones on the list at WebMD, "sudden death."

So if you're asymptomatic with COVID it only means you don't have pneumonia or any of the other obvious symptoms. Your blood can still be clotting in weird ways possibly leading to my own condition, you can be taking on joint damage, and a host of other things that aren't classic COVID symptoms. Even the benign sounding loss of taste may be a sign of permanent neurological damage, even if your sense comes back.

Obviously I'm not a "carrier" for coronary artery disease, since my version of it isn't contagious. But I am asymptomatic, and that is not a good or benign thing. Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong, and when it's not working you are living in ignorance of your own body's condition. Anyone who doesn't take the idea seriously is fooling themselves badly.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Thank you for sharing that.

It really does help clarify the usage of the word asymptomatic.

[Pobeka]

6. Excellent point. The word needs to have meaning for laypeople, and uhh, the willfully ignorant. nt

[Hekate]

7. Thank you for getting it. Push has now come to shove in the family as we emerge from our cave...

... with hubby and I fully vaccinated and come face to face with otherwise intelligent people who have apparently not seen or read the same news reports we have.

[Ms. Toad]

8. Asymptomatic is the correct word - but it isn't a semantic issue.

The offenders (just like Typhoid Mary, or doctors transmitting childbed fever) do not believe that they spread the disease unless they are personally ill.

It doesn't matter what you call it - it will not convince those who reject science that they need to be cautious when they don't feel sick.

[localroger]

10. I agree with this. The problem is selfishness and willful ignorance.

The big problem with COVID isn't that it's as deadly as Captain Trips, it's that everyone who gets it is contagious and asymptomatic for a week before they realize they have it. So it spreads like wildfire if everyone doesn't take precautions all the time. And it does kill 1 to 5 percent of those who get it, more if the hospitals are overwhelmed, which is a very bad problem if everyone gets it because of the people who refuse to be careful.