According to new data published in JAMA, the rate of coronavirus infection in different parts of America may be much more than anyone would expect it to be.
Since January, the US central government has been advising state governments to report all confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, there is a possibility of having over 10 times more coronavirus infected people in the U.S than the figures which have been documented by the agency as per the recent study.
Asymptomatic patients i.e., those with positive antibodies or presumed markers of prior infection may be spreading the COVID infection unknowingly because of not having symptoms and being unaware of being infected.
The CDC’s most recent estimate shows that asymptomatic patients contribute to about 40% in community transmission of COVID-19 infection. About 10 cities and states in the U.S (majority of which have reportedly high infection rates) were used for analysis based on which the report was prepared. Though the blood samples used to analyse and study may not be a representative of the general population.
However, John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and professor of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School considers the study as “an incredibly well done study” which will help to “better understand the community-wide burden of COVID-19.” Though he believes that numbers covered by these researchers may “underestimate the true prevalence of disease “.
He said, “corroborating other smaller studies previously done” (shows that) “the infection was much more widespread than we thought”.
He added, “the overall number of people that have been infected is still low. We’re going to see a lot more cases before either the virus is contained or there is a vaccine. Plus, results of several recent clinical trials suggest that a potential vaccine is still many months away.”
Brownstein commented, “we can’t make any conclusions around herd immunity from this data” and added, ” we’re really going to get out of this pandemic is with mask wearing, social distancing, (and following other measures suggested by the CDC), especially for those who are infected and asymptomatic.”