Asymptomatic spread makes testing key for COVID-19 fight

The prevalence of asymptomatic cases—people infected with the virus who can spread it to others but don’t feel sick—is one of the most challenging aspects of the coronavirus pandemic, researchers say.

In Iceland, where a broad testing effort resulted in 5% of the country’s population getting tested for COVID-19, a lab study suggested that as many as 50% of people who have the disease show no symptoms. A study conducted in Singapore showed that patients with COVID-19 can spread the disease without showing symptoms themselves.

Here, Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discusses the challenges of tracing the spread of coronavirus, the importance of testing, and the dangerous appeal of “immunity passports”:

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