WHO official walks back comments on asymptomatic transmission
An official leading the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response clarified comments made at a media briefing Monday that suggested coronavirus transmission by asymptomatic individuals is “very rare.”
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead, said in a video posted on the organization’s Twitter feed that she was referring to a small subset of studies and unpublished information from member states when making the comments.
“I wasn’t stating a policy of WHO or anything like that, I was just trying to articulate what we know,” she said. “And in that I used the phrase ‘very rare,’ and I think that’s a misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare.”
In contact tracing efforts from other countries, secondary transmission from asymptomatic individuals was rarely found, Van Kerkhove said, but the subject is still “a major unknown.”
Monday’s comments fueled tweets by anti-lockdown activists questioning decisions to shutter businesses in the name of public health.
Some public health experts noted Van Kerkhove’s failure to support her claim with published studies, while others rushed to her defense.
Van Kerkhove said much research is being done to determine when someone has COVID-19 and is truly asymptomatic and what proportion of that population actually transmits the disease.
“That’s a big open question, and that remains an open question,” she said.