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More than half of people with strong Covid infection are asymptomatic, new figures show:
More than half of people with a strong Covid infection did not report any of the major symptoms, new figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed.
This underlines the risk of people spreading the virus without knowing they are infected which is thought to be one of the main ways the coronavirus pandemic has been able to spread so easily around the world.
The ONS said 53 per cent of people with a strong positive, or high viral load, between December and March did not report having any symptoms compared to 47 per cent who did. It excluded patients likely to be at the start of their infection when transmission and symptoms are thought to be less likely.
Fatigue, headache and cough were the most commonly reported symptoms amongst people who had a strong positive test for Covid-19.
[...] "Around half of those we tested did not report any symptoms even whilst having high levels of the virus present in their body. This underlines that people in the community may unknowingly have the virus and potentially transmit it to others."
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday April 09 2021, @02:41AM (4 children)
Infection isn't a binary thing: Viral load (i.e. how much of the bad stuff is in your body) also matters, and that's why vaccination also helps prevent the spread to unvaccinnated people.
It makes total sense when you think about it: Vaccination means your body has antibodies to the virus. The antibodies help by preventing the virus from invading your cells and reproducing with your cells' organelles and proteins. Which means that there's fewer copies of the virus floating around your body, which means that there's less that you can expel onto somebody else. And as an added bonus, if you get vaccinated, you aren't helping the virus mutate into a new version as easily, because mutation requires reproduction to turn into a new strain or variant.
It's the difference between trying a password-guessing attack from 1 machine, or a password-guessing attack from a botnet of 100,000 machines.
And yes, keep wearing a mask and socially distancing in public places too. This isn't an either-or.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 09 2021, @02:47AM
That's what I said, but bit more succinctly, windbag.
Whatever, I'm in total agreement.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 09 2021, @03:49AM
Vaccination also puts selection pressure on the virus that is different
than a non-vaccinated immune response.
So vaccination is not just "all good".
And these new vaccines have an "emergency use" qualification.
What about 10 years down the road?
So I'd say there are still BIG unknowns with the covid vaccines.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 09 2021, @08:46AM
Not necessarily. This isn't proven yet for any of the covid-19 vaccines being used. Some vaccines on some people could just make them more like those asymptomatic people who still shed lots of viruses.
It may well be that some covid-19 vaccinations reduce spread and others don't. See the case of the whooping cough vaccines for an example:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150624071018.htm [sciencedaily.com]
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday April 09 2021, @03:16PM
Sound point, and I'll amplify by passing along that the Israelis have put numbers on the reduced viral load. Among vaccinated people with breakthrough infections, it averages a quarter what would have been expected in unvaccinated people.