The truth about asymptomatic COVID-19
Masks are still a crucial part of fighting COVID-19 (Anna Shvets/Pexels/)Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including news on federal policies, the latest on immune-response research, and a state-by-state breakdown of confirmed cases.The World Health Organization seemed to claim earlier this week that asymptomatic COVID-19 patients weren’t major spreaders of the virus, before walking back their statements a day later. Many people were understandably confused and frustrated about the apparent flip-flopping, but the truth is, as ever, a bit more complicated.“They were trying to quibble about a point,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease researcher at the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF/ San Francisco General Hospital. “They were trying to make the point that we have no idea how much transmission occurs from asymptomatic vs presymptomatic people.”Making that fairly semantic point at a major press conference—just days after the WHO changed its stance on...