WHO Says Data Shows Asymptomatic Carriers are Not a Major Source of Coronavirus Transmission

As the numbers coronavirus cases continue to rise globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) is speaking out about transmission of the coronavirus, including asymptomatic people spreading the virus.

Health experts and researchers had previously shared information that asymptomatic carriers were a problem during the coronavirus pandemic because they wouldn’t know to self-isolate and therefore not spread the infection. The WHO cast doubt on that information on June 8 when it said that asymptomatic carriers weren’t a major part of the transmission.

“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, “It’s very rare.” To help reduce the spread, Dr. Van Kerkhove recommended that governments focus on identifying and isolating infected people and tracking people that might have come into contact with them.

“What we really want to be focused on is following the symptomatic cases,” Van Kerkhove said. “If we actually followed all of the symptomatic cases, isolated those cases, followed the contacts, and quarantined those contacts, we would drastically reduce” the spread.

Experts have spoken out in disagreement and the WHO had to revise their original statement. CDC reports from April recommended social distancing based on asymptomatic or “presymptomatic transmission.” Dr. Van Kerkhove acknowledged on June 9 that this was from small clusters and small sets of studies and that in those cases it was “very rare” to find secondary infections from asymptomatic carriers. She called it “a big open question.”

Experts spoke out against the WHO’s statement. “Some modeling studies suggest 40-60% of spread is from people when they didn’t have symptoms. It may be there isn’t a lot of asymptomatic spread but plenty of pre-symptomatic spread. Would be helpful to get the full report they are referencing,” said Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute on Twitter.

Read more about protecting yourself from coronavirus. Check the CDC website for more information on how to protect yourself and check our latest article to learn how COVID-19 differs from the flu.

Scientists believe that the spread of COVID-19, or coronavirus, started at an exotic animal market in Wuhan, China. You can help stop the incidence of viruses like these by signing this petition to ban the wildlife trade.

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Catch up on our latest coronavirus coverage in One Green Planet, check out these articles:

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