A World Health Organization official clarifies after describing asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 as being “rare.” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for coronavirus response, now says “this is a major unknown” about asymptomatic cases.
The World Health Organization tried on Tuesday to clear up confusing comments about how often people can spread the coronavirus when they do not have symptoms.
Coronavirus spread by asymptomatic people 'appears to be rare,' WHO official saysThe organization held a live Q&A on its social media pages to address questions about comments made by a WHO official that suggested asymptomatic people only rarely spread Covid-19. The comments appeared to directly contradict guidance from public health organizations, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have said about a third of coronavirus infections may be asymptomatic.
Study: Coronavirus carriers may be most infectious before showing symptoms 07:52"What I was referring to yesterday in the press conference were very few studies -- some two or three studies that had been published that actually try to follow asymptomatic cases, so people who are infected, over time, and then look at all of their contacts and see how many additional people were infected," Van Kerkhove said."And that's a very small subset of studies.
Liam Smeeth, professor of clinical epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that he was"quite surprised" by Van Kerkhove's original comments."It goes against my impressions from the science so far that suggest asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people are an important source of infection to others," Smeeth said In a written statement distributed by the UK-based Science Media Centre on Tuesday.
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