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There are those who have covid but do not get a little sick. Still, they can infect others. Are they the unknown driving force behind the spread of the infection or a harmless bunch to ignore? Let’s take a look at the most enigmatic group in the pandemic: the asymptomatic.
– Many of those who are in the Christmas shopping have covid without knowing it, a doctor of infections warned in the newspaper the other day.
How many are these clueless spreaders?
This question has occupied researchers for almost a year.
• Some are fairly easy to count. These are people who were infected with the Sars-Cov-2 virus the other day and will be sick tomorrow. With 1,200 new cases registered per day in Skåne, we know roughly how many there are.
• But then there is another group: those who contract COVID without getting sick. Because they have no symptoms, they are called asymptomatic. They can carry the virus and therefore be contagious.
Why are they not visible in the statistics?
Asymptomatic is the one that never presents symptoms. It is in the nature of things that these people are difficult to tell. Any of us who have not tested positive for COVID may belong to this group.
Only those with symptoms should be tested, the Skåne Region call reads. In this way we do not find the asymptomatic.
How to find them?
There’s really only one way to find out how common they are: analyzing an entire population to see how many have developed antibodies to the virus, or so-called T-cell immunity.
Then find out how many of these have been sick with symptoms and who have had covid without realizing it.
This is a complete procedure that costs a lot of money.
How many have you searched?
The results are disseminated. One study found that the proportion of asymptomatic carriers is four percent of those infected, another set the proportion at 41 percent. Yes, there were even researchers who assumed that the asymptomatic are almost as many as the sick.
The average of credible studies was that 17 percent of those infected with covid do not develop any symptoms.
How contagious are they?
There is broad agreement that an asymptomatic person does not infect as much as a sick person. Those who do not cough, sneeze, or sneeze do not spread saliva droplets around them in the same way.
It also mapped how many household members were infected, when they got sick, and what symptoms they had. Contacts outside the home were also traced.
Conclusion: The risk of infecting other people is reduced by three-quarters if you do not have any symptoms yourself.
“We were able to show that those who did not have symptoms are a quarter as likely to infect someone in the home as those with symptoms; in total, the asymptomatic caused a fifth of the infections that spread within homes. “
However, the average of the thirteen previous studies remained at a 42 percent lower risk of infection.
How many are asymptomatic in Skåne?
Let’s assume that the mean value is correct and that 17 percent of those infected do not develop any covid symptoms.
Every day, just over 1,200 new cases are registered in Skåne, based on the daily average for the last seven days. All of these had symptoms, otherwise they would not have tested themselves.
With our imaginary participation, at least 250 people from Skåne become covid every day without even realizing it. Surely there is more because our calculation is based only on known cases of covid.
How long are they contagious?
Studies have found both viruses in the upper respiratory tract in asymptomatic patients and in patients.
So what is the bottom line?
This is an elusive dark figure in the winter darkness: no one knows exactly how many are asymptomatic. And not exactly how contagious.
But even if they are less contagious, they spread covid, the researchers agree. And it can be any of us.
