Asymptomatic Carriers May Not Be Contagious
The Claim
People who have COVID without symptoms do not spread it through breath, surfaces, etc.
News posted on
Emerging story
Since the COVID crisis began, social media has been flooded with speculation about the virus. One of those speculative claims has been that there exist many people with no symptoms who still have COVID, and that these people still spread the virus, which may infect and kill others around them.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation shows that the stance of the WHO is that it is extremely “rare” for asymptomatic COVID cases to spread the virus. This means that generally, only those who are actively displaying symptoms of the virus (and those they are interacting with) need to social distance and wear protective gear. Of course, we are better safe than sorry, but the fears that many had in the beginning of the crisis that the virus would spread like wildfire if all human activity was not altered seem to be very misleading with current information.
The story likely circulated due to a significant amount of false information (“Fake News”) from many different sources surrounding the COVID crisis, especially concerning the severity of the crisis, that makes it difficult to determine the extent to which individuals should be concerned for themselves and their families, and modify their behavior accordingly (or not), at any given point in time. For example, one authoritative source says that as many as 80% of COVID cases may be asymptomatic, meaning that even if one does get the virus, they may not even know it or spread it to anyone.
Thus, many on social media should be happy to hear that as the developed world opens up again positive test results may increase, but the amount of damage being done by this crisis is decreasing steadily
