Can you have COVID-19 without symptoms? Over the last few years, we’ve heard about respiratory symptoms, both mild and severe. People have described losing their sense of smell or developing “Covid toes.” Yet as many as 40% of people who test positive for COVID-19 have no symptoms.
COVID-19 Without Symptoms:
That is the unexpected finding from a meta-analysis of 95 studies (JAMA Network Open, Dec. 14, 2021). involving nearly 30 million individuals. Researchers point out that the viral load in the throat is highest shortly before people start to cough, sneeze or run a fever. Out of all the tests done, only a relative handful, 0.25%, were asymptomatic. A relatively high proportion of those who had confirmed positive tests, however, had no symptoms–54% among pregnant women, 53% among travelers and 47% among nursing home residents.
The authors conclude that their findings suggest that
“asymptomatic infections might contribute to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within the community.”
Implications of This Study:
The problem with this situation is that a person could be quite infectious without realizing it. As people prepare to visit friends and family over the holidays they may want to use rapid tests to make sure they are not spreading illness to others during the celebrations. This problem may become even more acute with the Omicron variant. This highly transmissible version of SARS-CoV-2 infects some people without symptoms but can make others dangerously ill.
