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Comment by jacobwilliamroy | Hacker News Reader

What I heard is that it does not stop the virus, but it does slow the spread, which is key considering that we are currently in a flu season. If 40% of the population is going to get infected, it's better to deal with them over a couple years than have them show up all at once.

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actually I wonder if that 40% still holds given the recent news that the study showing that it could be transmitted by asymptomatic people wasn't correct (although I guess that doesn't mean it can't be transmitted by asymptomatics, only that we are back to uncertain)

Then again, the world is not really structured to letting someone with light fever lay in bed for two weeks so maybe it's the same thing.

The references I have found for "the recent news that the study showing that it could be transmitted by asymptomatic people wasn't correct" are all over a month old, while the references I find for asserting that new evidence is confirming asymptomatic transmission is in fact happening are only a week and a half old. Can you help disambiguate?

For what it's worth, the WHO assesses the situation thusly:

"The main way the disease spreads is through respiratory droplets expelled by someone who is coughing. The risk of catching COVID-19 from someone with no symptoms at all is very low. However, many people with COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms. This is particularly true at the early stages of the disease. It is therefore possible to catch COVID-19 from someone who has, for example, just a mild cough and does not feel ill."

https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

I saw a an article yesterday (I believe it was linked here on HN) it was on some science site which said basically that everyone was on agreement that asymptomatic transmission happened because of this study that was done a while ago but it turned out the study had an improper methodology and the lady they thought had been asymptomatic (some Chinese lady visiting Berlin IIRC) had in fact had light fever and weakness.

However this does not mean that asymptomatic transmission does not happen, the article said that the study had been supposed to be true for confirming what a lot of people had suspected.

I can't remember the article, I didn't bookmark, also I'm not sure what computer it was on.

> the study showing that it could be transmitted by asymptomatic people wasn't correct (although I guess that doesn't mean it can't be transmitted by asymptomatics, only that we are back to uncertain)

[citation needed]

Or in guessing have patients who have the flu and covid concurrently.

Hopefully it also gives other regions time to prepare

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