# Corona virus question: Do asymptomatic carriers clear the virus?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [June 18, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904 "2020-06-18T13:24:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904/1 "2020-06-18T13:24:23Z")

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I was reading about Typhoid Mary the other day, about how she spent the last 20 years of her life in quarantine because she was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid that was unable to clear the bacteria from her body. This, predictably, led me to wonder about the asymptotic carriers of Covid-19; do they clear the virus from their body?

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**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904/2 "2020-06-18T13:40:54Z")

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I think this is another one of those where it is too soon to tell, but generally yes they do clear the virus at some point and do not transmit the virus to other. If they didn’t it would be **HUGE** news. Also, Typhoid Mary was a unique case of someone who continued to be a carrier of Typhoid, the vast majority of people recovered and were not infecting others.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904/3 "2020-06-18T13:59:59Z")

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Moving to Quarantine.

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904/4 "2020-06-18T14:53:44Z")

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Yes.

Best illustration of this are those kids with Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. To the best of anyone’s knowledge they had no symptomatic disease, commonly are negative for the virus by the time they have the inflammation, but have or develop antibody evidence of infection.

To the best of my knowledge there are no cases of chronically active coronavirus infections. Can’t say it is not possible. Other viruses do sometimes do that, some more commonly than others. If it happens though it would likely be in relation to something very special about that specific host.

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corona-virus-question-do-asymptomatic-carriers-clear-the-virus/855904/5 "2020-06-18T14:57:58Z")

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I’m sure they do - if they didn’t ever clear the virus, nations like China would have had to lock them up forever or else the pandemic would never end.