KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The World Health Organization clarified the statement made regarding the spread of COVID-19 being "very rare" by someone who is asymptomatic.
“If people decide to slack off because of this, then that’s caused some harm," said Dr. Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department.
Tuesday, WHO said asymptomatic people are still carriers of the virus and take part in spreading it. However, WHO said more studies are needed to determine how much they’re contributing to the spread.
“I think the controversy here is even if it’s only 6-10 percent, do you want to get the disease from somebody that didn’t know they had it and then harm somebody else,” Archer said.
The statement Monday caused some confusion after communities have been on lockdown for months due to fear of spreading the virus, even by people not showing symptoms.
“It wasn’t meant to mean like that, it was more of an epidemiologist statement to say well, probably the spread from those who are asymptomatic is not as high as was thought it was before, but we need more studies on this and this is really preliminary,” said Dr. Wissam El Atrouni of the University of Kansas Health System.
Local health officials told 41 Action News they want to remind people to not let up on social distancing and wearing a mask.
“Here in Johnson County, our recommendations will remain the same, for people to wear a mask whether they have symptoms or not,” said Dr. Sanmi Areola, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment.
Doctors also clarified the difference between being asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic.
“I have two, three, four, five days after I’m infected before I start to show symptoms, so that period would be what we refer to as pre-symptomatic period,” Areola said.
The CDC said that 40 percent of COVID-19 transmission occurs before people feel sick.
Tuesday, the WHO said their comments may have been misinterpreted.
