A flood of new research suggests that far more people than we thought have had the coronavirus without any symptoms. If that’s the case, it could turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared.
That would be the good news. The bad news is, that would make it impossible to know who around you is contagious.
The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 25% of infected people might not have symptoms. Additionally, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Hyten, thinks it may be as high as 60% to 70% among military personnel.
Last week, there was a study of coronavirus antibodies of more than 3,000 people in Santa Clara County, California. The results suggested that between 2.5% and 4.2% of people in the county have contracted COVID-19, which was 50 to 85 times greater than the number of cases being reported at the time.
Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard’s School of Public Health says
none of these numbers can be fully trusted because they’re based on inadequate testing. Collectively, though, they suggest “we have just been off the mark by huge, huge numbers” for estimating total infections.
That will most certainly complicate decisions about returning to work, school and normal life in the coming weeks.