Forty percent of people with coronavirus infections have no symptoms.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Might they be the key to ending the pandemic?

When researcher Monica Gandhi began digging deeper into outbreaks of the novel coronavirus, she was struck by the extraordinarily high number of infected people who had no symptoms.

A Boston homeless shelter had 147 infected residents, but 88 percent had no symptoms even though they shared their living space. A Tyson Foods poultry plant in Springdale, Ark., had 481 infections, and 95 percent were asymptomatic. Prisons in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia counted 3,277 infected people, but 96 percent were asymptomatic.

During its seven-month global rampage, the coronavirus has claimed more than 700,000 lives. But Gandhi began to think the bigger mystery might be why it has left so many more practically unscathed.

What was it about these asymptomatic people, who lived or worked so closely to others who fell severely ill, she wondered, that protected them? Did the “dose” of their viral exposure make a difference? Was it genetics? Or might some people already have partial resistance to the virus, contrary to our initial understanding?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/forty-percent-of-people-with-coronavirus-infections-have-no-symptoms-might-they-be-the-key-to-ending-the-pandemic/ar-BB17JpdS?li=BBnb7Kz

[Laelth]

1. No symptoms ... I just don't believe that.

Symptoms vary, yes, and many people don’t notice them immediately. They tend to accumulate, but I don’t think that anyone could contract this virus and have no symptoms.

Note: I am neither a doctor nor an epidemiologist. This is merely a well-informed, personal opinion.

-Laelth

[Celerity]

2. completely wrong, my wife and I caught it in back in April, we had no clue, zero symptoms, nor did

a shedload of our friends and co-workers who also contracted it and had no symptoms, including multiple whole families. We both still have non-reduced antibody counts as well. Just got tested yet again on Monday this past week (we are in a large study here at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset).

[Thomas Hurt]

3. I understood this to be the case from the start...and

this is what the christofascists are betting on when they squeal about masks, get hysterical about vaccines, and hold parties, or go to Sturgis.

They are betting they won't get it, and if they do, it won't be bad. Finally, and least important it seems, is whether they will spread it to others.

[mr_lebowski]

4. I would say if the numbers in the article are correct, it's incredible that 60% show symptoms ...

"A Boston homeless shelter had 147 infected residents, but 88 percent had no symptoms even though they shared their living space. A Tyson Foods poultry plant in Springdale, Ark., had 481 infections, and 95 percent were asymptomatic. Prisons in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia counted 3,277 infected people, but 96 percent were asymptomatic."

That's a sample size of 3565, which is pretty substantial.

((.12*147) + (.05 * 481) + (.04 * 3277)) / (147 + 141 + 3277) = 172/3565 = 4.8%

It is incredibly statistically unlikely to encounter an (even remotely) random sample of 3,565 with a 4.8% occurrence of some trait, whereas the overall population has an occurrence of 60% of that same trait.

To say the odds against that being true are akin to winning the lottery ... is probably an understatement.

Obviously it's not truly random because the population range found in a homeless shelter, a food plant, and a prison would typically contain a lower % of elderly people than is found in the general public, but it's not enough to explain a 12 TIMES higher rate of being symptomatic in the population vs. this sample.

Either 60% showing symptoms is WAAAY too high, or the reporting on all three of those places is full of crap ... but lying by similar amounts.

[PandoraAwakened]

5. +1000 for statistical analysis! n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

6. If it's related to previous exposures to coronaviruses from colds

that could explain it in populations that typically get lots of exposure to lots of bugs, which would likely be the case in prisons and homeless shelters.

At least that makes some kind of sense to me.

[mr_lebowski]

7. Good thinking ... and if all these numbers are accurate, they should be looking REAL hard

at what common threads there are between these 3 environments, because there is something SERIOUSLY magical going on in those places.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. I've been seeing ever since the beginning that a significant number

of people have no symptoms. Which is possibly some kind of a clue to defeating this. What do the symptomless people have in common? Especially as compared with those who get real sick. Someone needs to do a lot of questioning and then some serious data analysis.

It's not going to be as simple as blood type. It may be a very convoluted and involved connection with individual immune systems.

Speaking only of myself, I'm 71 and the healthiest person I know. I never get sick these days. When I was a little kid I got sick A LOT. I was a middle child of six, and until I was seven we lived in a low-income housing development. Lots of little kids. I got sick pretty much all the time, and I remember it well. Plus, of course, back then we all got measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and lots more. Once I turned seven, around the time we moved out of that development and to the country, I stopped getting sick very often. Oh, I still got colds and flu, but not with anything remotely resembling the frequency of those early years. The older I get the less often I get sick. I think I last had flu about 40 years ago. And no, I don't get flu shots. Which isn't to suggest you shouldn't get them. I've had maybe three colds in the last ten or so years. Although that has a lot to do with the limited, albeit large, number of actual cold viruses.

As for the Covid-19 thing, I'm mostly staying home. I have two different friends that I go out to a restaurant with -- outdoor dining only -- perhaps once every week or two. Oh, and a neighbor across the street that I sometimes step inside her house to chat. I wear a mask when I go into a store of any kind. I don't obsess about sanitizing, just do normal hand washing. I'm pretty sure I haven't been exposed, and so at this point I'm not about to tie up testing resources for myself. And when a vaccine does become available, I will be slow at getting it for two reasons. First, and most important, is that there are a lot of people who need it ahead of me. Second is that I want to give lots of time to know that it's actually safe and effective.

Given my overall fabulous health, I wonder if people like me can shed light on who gets sick and who doesn't. But since I'm pretty sure I haven't been exposed, I may not be a very good sample.

But what is the difference between those who are symptomless and those who get very sick? That seems to be a very important question that needs to be researched and answered.

[USALiberal]

9. K&R

[dalton99a]

10. Kick