“The only answer” to asymptomatic and presymptomatic spreading of the coronavirus is to “expand our testing,” Dr. Ron Elfenbein said.
With “silent transmission” of the coronavirus possibly accounting for half of all COVID-19 cases, more testing needs to be done, Dr. Ron Elfenbein said on CBSN Monday. The estimate that 50% of cases may be spread by people who aren’t showing symptoms is based on a model published by the National Academy of Sciences.
“If it’s really true that 50% of the spread of this comes from asymptomatic people or presymptomatic people, then the only answer to that is to test the heck out of everybody and just expand our testing capacity as much as possible,” Elfenbein, an emergency care physician in Maryland, said.
Asymptomatic means you are infected but don’t ever get sick, while presymptomatic means you will go on to develop symptoms but haven’t shown them yet, Elfenbein explained.
