#14,800
According to an article written by Kai Kupferschmidt for Science Magazine, the heavily publicized NEJM study on supposed asymptomatic transmission was `flawed' because the index patient was not contacted prior to publication, and now reports having had vague, non-specific symptoms (tired, muscle aches, and took paracetamol) while traveling in Germany.
To her contacts, she apparently appeared to be fine, however.This raises an important question; when should a person be considered symptomatic? Most people have days when they are tired, or have body aches. I imagine this would be particularly common among those on long haul (i.e. China to Germany) business trips, as was this index case.
If an infected individual doesn't look sick, doesn't act sick, and - despite vague, non-specific symptoms - feels `well' enough to travel and interact freely with others, I would submit they are at least `functionally asymptomatic' even if they might not technically be so.In practical terms, if a person can breeze through an airport screening or pass a `fever check' without raising suspicions, then the precise line between asymptomatic and symptomatic is pretty much moot; a distinction without a difference.
Despite the omission of the index patient's recollections in this study, many researchers still believe asymptomatic (or at least mildly symptomatic) transmission occurs with this novel coronavirus. And if true, that makes 2019-nCoV much harder to control than SARS-CoV.
Kai Kupferschmidt does his usual terrific job covering all the angles in his article, including comments from such notables such as Anthony Fauci at NIAID, Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and virologist Christian Drosten of the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, and others.
Follow the link below to read the article in its entirety.
Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed
By Kai KupferschmidtFeb. 3, 2020 , 5:30 PM
