The myth of asymptomatic COVID transmission doomed America’s pandemic response

Seven falsehoods or misleading opinions on COVID-19 have led to incalculable loss.

Asymptomatic spread is virtually non-existent, and if this does occur, it would account for fewer than 1% of cases.

We have no documented proof, no documented evidence of asymptomatic spread occurring in any appreciable manner. I argue that the concept of asymptomatic spread for COVID-19 has been a falsehood and a means both to deceive and mislead then-President Trump and the nation and to drive fear and paranoia.

How did this issue of ‘asymptomatic spread’ come about? Spread of a pathogen will occur more surely when the carriers are sick with symptoms, especially if the symptoms function to expel the pathogen into the surrounding air. Having no symptoms or very mild symptoms reduces the risk of spread, and with no symptoms, spread is basically removed. This is the same for SARS-CoV-2 virus, and a recent BMJ publication pretty well concludes that asymptomatic COVID carriers are rarely the drivers they were thought to be.

This is basic immunology and should not be changed for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).  I also recognize that I must be careful not to claim ‘zero,’ for the evidence changes daily and rapidly, and absence of documented evidence is also not a reason to entirely rule out ‘asymptomatic spread.’ It just may not have been studied yet or documented optimally. But I am confident enough based on the existing literature to agree that ‘it is a dangerous assumption to believe that there is persuasive, scientific evidence of asymptomatic transmission’.

The basis for the societal lockdowns was that 40% to 50% of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 could potentially spread it, even though asymptomatic. “But fears that the virus may be spread to a significant degree by asymptomatic carriers soon led government leaders to issue broad and lengthy stay-at-home orders and mask mandates out of concerns that anyone could be a silent spreader.” ‘Asymptomatic spread’ existence was a bogus claim by the administration and medical advisors meant to drive fear, and it continues to this day when they know they are deceiving the public.

A high-quality review study by Madewell, published in JAMA sought to estimate the secondary attack rate of SARS-CoV-2 in households and determine factors that modify this parameter. In addition, researchers sought to estimate the proportion of households with index cases that had any secondary transmission, and also compared the SARS-CoV-2 household secondary attack rate with that of other severe viruses and with that to close contacts for studies that reported the secondary attack rate for both close and household contacts.

The study was a meta-analysis of 54 studies with 77,758 participants. Secondary attack rates represented the spread to additional persons, and researchers found a 25-fold increased risk within households between symptomatic positive infected index persons versus asymptomatic infected index persons. “Household secondary attack rates were increased from symptomatic index cases (18.0%; 95% CI, 14.2%-22.1%) than from asymptomatic index cases (0.7%; 95% CI, 0%-4.9%)”. This study showed just how rare asymptomatic spread was within a confined household environment.

From the nearly 2 million children who were followed in school in Sweden, it was reported that with no mask mandates, there were zero deaths from Covid and only a few instances of transmission and minimal hospitalization.

In the UK, the “Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies” recommended that “[p]rioritizing rapid testing of symptomatic people is likely to have a greater impact on identifying positive cases and reducing transmission than frequent testing of asymptomatic people in an outbreak area.”

A study published in Nature found no instances of asymptomatic spread from positive asymptomatic cases among all 1,174 close contacts of the cases, based on a base sample of 10 million people. “There were no positive tests amongst 1,174 close contacts of asymptomatic cases”. AIER’s Zucker responded this way: “The conclusion is not that asymptomatic spread is rare or that the science is uncertain. The study revealed something that hardly ever happens in these kinds of studies. There was not one documented case. Forget rare. Forget even Fauci’s previous suggestion that asymptomatic transmission exists but not does drive the spread. Replace all that with: never. At least not in this study for 10,000,000.” (read more)