My sister lives in Dubai. They went into quarantine starting April 3. My Brother in Law had gone to work on April 1, and as it later turned out : one of his coworkers had tested positive. So his office required him to get tested too. His test came back positive but he has no symptoms.
When I read online, it says there are no asymptomatic carriers and that all develop symptoms within a few days to a maximum of 14 days.
It has been 21 days or more since my BIL came in contact and he still has no symptoms.
It would seem that they are. Either they don’t get it or they get it so mildly that they might as well not get it. I think that a lot of those sailors on the Roosevelt fall into that category. I think they need to research these folks and see if there are any common traits. It would be nice to have a way to trick the virus into “thinking” that this is one of the people you shouldn’t make sick. but you’re probably right in that a lot of the people who seem asymptomatic are merely presymptomatic.
Where did you read this? This appears the be the crux of the issue, how do we know if people are truly asymptomatic unless they get tested? Aside from cases like your BIL, not many people showing no symptoms are getting tested. We know there’s a big danger from people who are pre-symptomatic, but I’m not sure whether we have enough data yet to determine how many people develop no symptoms or symptoms so mild as to not register.
Some people labeled asymptomatic will eventually develop symptoms, it’ll just take a while.
The issue is that it seems we are all over the place regarding what % are truly asymptomatic. Some studies claim its a small percentage, some claim its a much bigger percentage.
“Asymptomatic infection has been reported, but the majority of the relatively rare cases who are asymptomatic on the date of identification/report went on to develop disease.** The proportion of truly asymptomatic infections is unclear but appears to be relatively rare and does not appear to be a major driver of transmission.**
<Bolding mine.>
There is a lot of double talk on the web sources ; even reputed science websites. They can’t say for sure if there are truly some asymptomatic people (who will remain asymptomatic for life) or if these are just presymtomatic cases.
So the question remains - How many days have to pass for someone to be truly asymptomatic?
That tells you that there are asymptomatic people. The relative rarity may be due to the likelihood that asymptomatic people are much less likely to be tested at all. The most commonly used testing method also has a possible error rate of up to 30% false negatives. So pegging down percentages is a little problematic.
That’s what I mean by double talk in scientific publications. I usually interpret something to be rare if it is 3 standard deviations away from the median but looks like it is open to interpretation. Other sources on the web says about 25% are asymptomatic
Practically speaking, is there much difference between minimally symptomatic and asymptomatic? I mean, if the symptoms you eventually get are so mild that they could be hay fever, then you also are probably not going to get tested and will never know you had it. But if you had a positive test and were actively watching for symptoms, you’d notice them. Heck, knowing you are positive probably makes psychosomatic symptoms quite plausible.
That report is two months old and reflected the best science at the time, but things have changed. The prevalence of asymptomatic carriers is now thought to be much greater that what they thought back in February.
Okay - so do we have a consensus now ? And who exactly is asymptomatic- someone who has tested positive but has no symptoms for X number of days ? What is X considering six standard deviations ?
Article is a month or so old but interesting. They tested positive, had mild symptoms and retested positive.
If the treatment is to self-quarantine and after finishing that, they figure they’re no longer a danger to others…? Even if they had some mild symptoms, absent a test some may conclude “Well I know what it isn’t.”