The confusion and mixed messages only make controlling the pandemic that much more difficult, experts say.
The communications debacle highlighted WHO’s change to its longstanding mask advice — a revision that was made months after many other organizations and countries already recommended people don masks.
“I was surprised by the conviction of that statement because there have clearly been people who have transmitted the infection before they go on to develop symptoms,” said Keith Neal, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Nottingham who has advised the U.K. government on outbreak control.
COVID-19 is spread via respiratory droplets, so wearing a mask will stop those droplets from reaching others. While most spread is thought to happen by coughing and sneezing, Ryan said there is some suggestion that even acts like singing or shouting could spread the virus from people who don’t yet show symptoms.It’s complicated, especially since the virus was only identified in late December.
Babak Javid, an infectious diseases doctor at Cambridge University Hospital, says many scientists are persuaded by the studies published so far and think WHO should publish the data it is citing to explain why it believes transmission of the disease in people without symptoms is “rare.”
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