Asymptomatic COVID Patients Often Develop Later Symptoms
The Claim
Asymptomatic COVID means that the patient is healthy.
Emerging story
On June 21 British news platform Cornwall Live reported on the Kenwyn Care Home in England, whose population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 94% of the staff are also vaccinated. Nonetheless, an undisclosed number of residents and workers tested positive for the virus but were asymptomatic. Social media users responded by saying that asymptomatic simply means healthy and doubted the validity that asymptomatic people could still spread the virus.
Misbar’s Analysis
The claim that asymptomatic means healthy is false. Research shows that a large number of asymptomatic COVID cases develop symptoms later, which are sometimes severe. For example, in one study in a nursing home, 48 residents were tested as asymptomatic, but about half of them developed symptoms within a week. Asymptomatic patients also contribute to the transmission of the virus.
The original article notes that all the cases are asymptomatic during a time when Cornwall is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases. LIfting restrictions on travel and inside restaurant and pub service created the surge and the news of this facility’s infection and immunizations rates is good news. All cases were both fully immunized for COVID-19 and were asymptomatic, and this provides more evidence that vaccines are highly effective.
As Johns Hopkins states, that an effective vaccine assures that the recipients' chances of contracting the virus are drastically lowered, and, if contracted, “serious illness, hospitalization, and death” are highly unlikely. The United Kingdom faced elevated death counts in care homes from COVID-19 during the pandemic, but after immunization, no resident of this care home even showed symptoms. Pfizer reported in March that the latest data shows unvaccinated people are 44 times more likely to develop COVID-19 symptoms, and 29 times more likely to die from the sickness.
Asymptomatic transmission of illnesses has been studied for some time. Research on the asymptomatic spread of influenza and sexually transmitted diseases also provides evidence for the efficacy of vaccines. Influenza, in particular, has been reduced by 40-60% yearly since the development of the vaccine.
