Eighty-six percent of people infected with coronavirus are walking around undetected, according to a study released Monday in the journal Science.
“It’s the undocumented infections which are driving the spread of the outbreak,” said co-author Jeffrey Shaman of Columbia University Mailman School, according to GeekWire.
The global coronavirus pandemic has affected more than 180,000 people and killed more than 7,500. The outbreak has forced lockdowns of major cities and hit the stock market especially hard, with several economists saying a recession has already started.
The rapidly spreading virus will likely strain America’s health care system, though many in the U.S. have not been tested because there aren’t enough tests available.
“It is failing,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a House briefing last week. “The system is not really geared to what we need right now.”
Shaman and his colleagues, using computer modeling, tracked infections before and after Wuhan, China, imposed a travel ban. They found that undocumented infections were behind two-thirds of the reported patients.
“The majority of these infections are mild, with few symptoms at all,” Shaman said, Mercury News reported. “People may not recognize it. Or they think they have a cold.”
“It will continue to present a major challenge to the containment of this outbreak going forward,” Shaman added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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