“Infected but Feeling Fine: The Unwitting Coronavirus Spreaders”

[Wally]

This article published in the New York Times on 3/31/2020 provides a lot of interesting information about the spread of the coronavirus by asymptomatic carriers of the virus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/health/coronavirus-asymptomatic-transmission.html

Infected but Feeling Fine: The Unwitting Coronavirus Spreaders

As many as 25 percent of people infected with the new coronavirus may not show symptoms, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns — a startlingly high number that complicates efforts to predict the pandemic’s course and strategies to mitigate its spread.
In particular, the high level of symptom-free cases is leading the C.D.C. to consider broadening its guidelines on who should wear masks. . . .

“This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country,” . . .

. . .For example, as many as 18 percent of people infected with the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship never developed symptoms, according to one analysis. A team in Hong Kong suggests that from 20 to 40 percent of transmissions in China occurred before symptoms appeared. . . .

. . .Because people may be passing the virus on to others even when they feel fine, asking only unwell people to stay home is unlikely to be enough. This is why many experts, going against recommendations by the C.D.C. and the World Health Organization, are now urging everyone to wear masks — to prevent those who are unaware they have the virus from spreading it. . . .

Like influenza, some experts now say, this virus appears to spread both through large droplets and droplets smaller than five micrometers — termed aerosols — containing the virus that infected people might release especially while coughing, but also while merely exhaling. They emphasized that the level of virus in both types of particles is low, so simply jogging or walking by an infected person does not put people at risk.

“If you have a passing contact with an infectious person, you would have a very, very low chance of transmission occurring,” said Dr. Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

The risk goes up with sustained contact — during face-to-face conversation, for example, or by sharing the same air space for a prolonged time. . . .

“We’ve estimated in China that between 20 percent and 40 percent of transmission events occurred before symptoms appeared,” Dr. Cowling said. . .

A separate analysis of the hundreds of people cloistered aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship bears out this scale. . . . researchers tested all of the passengersand reviewed those who tested positive for the virus on multiple occasions over a two-week period. They found that 18 percent of the infected passengers remained symptom-free throughout. . .

. . .Dr. Chowell said. “It would make a lot of sense to encourage at the very least face mask use in enclosed spaces including supermarkets.” . .

A separate analysis from the C.D.C. on Tuesday offered new evidence that a significant portion of people with severe coronavirus infections in the United States have underlying medical conditions. The agency looked at 7,162 cases, a small subset of the 122,000 cases in the U.S., but the findings provided a stark portrait. Of 457 people in that subset who were admitted to intensive care units, 32 percent suffered from diabetes; 29 percent had heart disease; and 21 percent had lung disease. Overall, 78 percent of people with Covid-19 admitted to the I.C.U. had at least one pre-existing condition. The study did not look at deaths. . . .

 

[andyguitar]

In the last 24 hours I have noticed a change in what is being reported in the UK media. We are starting to get a few items about medical staff being infected and not knowing it. Something not been said recently perhaps about how it is spread?