Dr. Anthony Fauci says WHO's remark on asymptomatic coronavirus spread 'was not correct'

[PSPS]

Source: CNBC

The World Health Organization’s remark that transmission of the coronavirus by people who never developed symptoms was rare, “was not correct,” White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.

The WHO “walked that back because there’s no evidence to indicate that’s the case,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview that aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“In fact, the evidence we have given the percentage of people, which is about 25% [to] 45%, of the totality of infected people likely are without symptoms,” he said. “And we know from epidemiological studies that they can transmit to someone who is uninfected even when they are without symptoms.”

An asymptomatic person is someone infected with Covid-19 but never develops symptoms. It’s not the same as a pre-symptomatic patient, who later goes on to develop symptoms. Studies have shown that people who are infected can spread the virus in the pre-symptomatic stage as well, generally one to a few days before symptoms start.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/10/dr-anthony-fauci-says-whos-remark-on-asymptomatic-coronavirus-spread-was-not-correct.html

[DeminPennswoods]

1. TBH, Fauci has no real idea either

because there simply is not enough data to determine this with certainty one way or the other.

[PSPS]

2. Not true

This particular aspect has been known since the beginning. That's why the WHO's statement was so surprising and it's no surprise that they're backtracking on that statement now. The real question is what motivated the WHO to make such a reckless statement. Was it to curry favor with trump after he withdrew. Another "do me a favor, though?" Something to help GOP governors "open up" their states, thus threatening the health of their residents to make trump have "better optics?"

[DeminPennswoods]

3. UPMC began testing everyone in and entering its hospital

system last month. So far, they tested 8,000 patients with no symptoms and found 21 who had the virus. That equates to 1/4 of 1 percent.

We know there were a lot of antibody tests out there that now have been pulled off the market. We don't know how many of the supposed "asymptomatic" carriers were identified by this method or if the test used was reliable of faulty.

[GeorgeGist]

9. I think I'll trust Fauci ...

and your reasoning is irrelevant to the question: do asymptomatic persons transmit the virus?

The frequency of asymptomatic individuals is not indicative of their infectivity.

[DeminPennswoods]

12. The reasoning goes something like this

There are many asymptomatic carries out there - maybe 20+%. These asymptomatic carries are responsible for much of the spread of covid19. Therefore a great many more people are exposed than we know.

This is not supported by any data that I'm aware of, except for the Stanford study of Santa Rosa, iirc, CA and antibody tests of residents of NYC. If there are more recent studies, please link them and I will be happy to read them.

The UPMC testing is recent and ongoing. They are testing everyone who comes in contact with their large and varied service areas hospitals. That means not only people who come to the ER or are admitted, but people who visit their UPMC doctors or other UPMC providers. UPMC has many hospitals now in its system outside of the immediate Pittsburgh area as well, so they are testing a farily diverse population.

Further, being contagious before exhibiting symptoms is also true of the common cold and the flu.

[c-rational]

4. Bingo - "What motivated the WHO to make such a statement." I think you ask the correct question.

[LiberalLovinLug]

6. Trump is not alone

Bolsonaro, Putin, and many other authoritarian leaders with their fingers deep in the economic pie themselves, are also putting pressure on the WHO to dampen down the threat level, so they can get back to business.

[marble falls]

5. Too bad we don't have any sort of national response past raspberries and crickets.

[Kali]

8. six to seven months into this thing and testing is barely getting worked out

don't see how anybody could know much with any certainty. it certainly seems logical that asymptomatic carriers would be less likely to spread infection if it is primarily spread by droplets since they aren't sneezing and coughing.

Science takes time, lots of data, revisions and TESTING.

[matt819]

7. We don't know

How difficult is it to say that?

You don't have to throw your hands up in the air, all exasperated, and say we don't know and stop asking me.

Explain the science. Explain the studies that have been done and the validity, or not, of those studies, and what the various interpretations signify. Do what a scientist would do in this situation.

[LisaL]

10. Well, we do know.

Epidemiological symptoms showed that people without symptoms can still infect others.

[matt819]

11. Or not

I had a COVID-19 test last week for two reasons. If I had the virus and was asymptomatic, I wanted to know that. Also, more data is better than less data. My wife thought I was an idiot. Maybe. Then over the weekend the WHO report came out that it was rare for asymptomatic people to pass on the disease. Now Fauci says not so fast. Another post in this thread reports on a relatively large-scale test that returned an extremely small percentage of asymptomatic people. Okay. But we don't really know if those asymptomatic people infected others.

So, we don't know. There are ideas. Hypotheses. Speculations. Thoughts. Guesses. More than 110,000 are dead in the US, and we don't really know why some - most - survive, though we have ideas, hypotheses, etc. there as well. Age, other conditions, even blood type. BTW, re blood type, a report I read indicated that A+ blood types are 50% more likely to go on a ventilator. Is this controlled for other conditions? 50% more than what - what's the baseline? And what's the sample size of that "study."

So, no, we don't really know. We draw whatever conclusions we wish to draw from the information that is out there, and we make decisions. Like so much else in life, we make those decisions even in the presence of much uncertainty. Sometimes those decisions are good, sometimes not. But let's not kid ourselves that there is a level of certainty that allows us to make these decisions with great confidence. Those of us in the reality-based universe think about this a lot and sometimes agonize over the decisions we end up making.

BTW, my Covid test was negative. So as of last week I didn't have the virus. Today? Probably the same, but who the hell knows. See what I mean? Uncertainty.