Transcript
As the coronavirus death toll mounts, now there are questions arising about whether US officials might have gotten it wrong about how the virus spreads.
On March 1, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said on ABC’s This Week that it’s mainly spread by people who already sick.
The website for the Centers for Disease Control said the same thing.
Now the question is: “Can someone spread the virus without being sick?”
The answer now from the CDC: “Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
But in Massachusetts more than 80 people contracted coronavirus at a conference held by a biotech company.
The State Department of Public Health told CNN that none of the people who attended displayed any symptoms during the conference.
Epidemiologists say this is evidence the virus is being transmitted to people who show no symptoms of coronavirus and that makes the outbreak even more difficult to control.
There are no statistics that point to the percentage of people who are getting infected with the virus by people who don’t have symptoms.
However on Saturday Doctor Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response task force, sent a somewhat different message, suggesting that people under age 20 could possibly be spreading the virus without having any symptoms.
And many health experts say that means it’s time to have a serious discussion about this virus that might be spreading in ways they had not anticipated.
Posted – 3.17.20