Another WHO mess, this time by asymptomatic patients

A senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO) contradicted the statements she made on Monday, when she assured that people who carry the coronavirus, but are asymptomatic, very rarely spread the disease. On this occasion, he maintained that studies on the matter are actually lacking and that it was all a misunderstanding.

Maria Van Kerkhove thus reacted to the surprise caused by her statements. "What I was referring to was that we had a very small number of studies, two or three," the epidemiologist explained to a journalist on Tuesday. "I used the term 'very unusual', but it is a misunderstanding, I was referring to a small group of studies," he said.

(You may also be interested: WHO changes its position in front of masks)

On Monday, after knowing his words, a part of the scientific community reacted. "It is not scientifically possible to affirm that the asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 are low in contamination," said a French doctor, Gilbert Deray, on his Twitter account. "If you are giving people confusing messages, or you don't convince them why they should do things like wearing masks, they will simply ignore you," explained Ivo Vlaev, a professor at the University of Warwick.

Before were the masks

"The conviction with which he made his statements was surprising, because there is evidence that patients have transmitted the disease before the first symptoms appear," explained Keith Neal, infectious disease expert at the University of Nottingham. Babak Javid, specialist from Cambridge University, meanwhile, said that "if you are going to make a statement as important as that, it would be good if you proved it." For the expert, "the WHO is an important institution, but it has made a series of statements that have led to misunderstandings."

Last Friday, the WHO had changed its position regarding the use of masks or masks, now recommending that anyone who cannot maintain a distance of 2 meters from others wear one. Previously, the WHO had recommended its use only to medical personnel or to those with symptoms of a respiratory illness. Despite its usage guideline, most countries had omitted the instruction from the World Health Organization and almost everyone is forced to wear masks indoors, such as public transport.

Source: DW