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Symptomless spread of new coronavirus questioned as outbreak mushrooms


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Positivity     36.00%   
   Negativity   64.00%
The New York Times
SOURCE: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/02/symptomless-spread-of-new-coronavirus-questioned-as-outbreak-mushrooms/
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Summary

Public health experts have been particularly anxious about such transmission because it could potentially ease disease spread and negate outbreak control efforts, including screening travelers for symptoms, such as fever.“The fact that asymptomatic persons are potential sources of 2019-nCoV infection may warrant a reassessment of transmission dynamics of the current outbreak,” the authors of the NEJM article concluded.But that conclusion now appears to be based on false information. And, while the new information on these specific cases doesn’t rule out the possibility that asymptomatic spread has occurred or is occurring in other cases, it could help ratchet down fears that asymptomatic spread is driving the now mushrooming outbreak.Experts at the World Health Organization have said repeatedly that even if asymptomatic spread is occurring, it is likely a minor source of infection; coughing and sneezing people are simply much more likely to spread the virus.Moreover, the corrected version of the NEJM article may highlight a more pressing threat to outbreak control—the fact that all five cases in the cluster were mild and unremarkable amid standard cold and flu season.According to the new report in Science, the businesswoman’s 2019-nCoV infection symptoms went unrecognized because they were mild, masked by over-the-counter medications, and—most notably—the authors of the NEJM article didn’t speak with her before the article was published.The woman, a Shanghai resident who had visited Germany from January 19 to 21, tested positive for 2019-nCoV in China on January 26.

As said here by Beth Mole