Viral social media messages claim the World Health Organisation has said COVID-19 patients can not transmit the virus from one patient to another, and that patients do not need isolation, quarantine, and social distancing.
The WHO has clarified that although about two or three studies have shown that the transmission by asymptomatic patients is very rare, it cannot be applied globally as there is ongoing research globally on the spread of the virus and the role of asymptomatic patients in the transmission of the virus.
Full text
Over the past weeks, the transmissibility of COVID-19 by asymptomatic patients has been of public interest among some Ghanaians. This is following a parliamentarian and former deputy Trade Minister, Carlos Ahenkorah’s claim that he is asymptomatic and is unable to transmit the virus to others as he referenced the World Health Organization (WHO) when he was interviewed on why he left isolation to go among people.
A message was, thereafter, circulated on Ghanaian WhatsApp media making similar claim purported to be by the WHO that COVID-19 patients do not need isolation, quarantine, nor social distancing and that the virus can not be transmitted among patients.
The message reads:
Breaking News: The World Health Organization has taken a complete U turn and said that Corona patients neither need to be isolated nor quarantined, nor social of distance, and it cannot even transmit from one patient to another. See the video.
The message is accompanied by a video from an American news organisation, NewsMaxTv.
In the video posted on June 9, 2020, the host, Greg Kelly, is seen playing back a press conference by the WHO the day before, and later interviewing a doctor, Dr David Samadi, to contribute to what the WHO purportedly said concerning the rare transmission of asymptomatic patients.
Verification
The video that accompanies the viral message did not mention the claim quoting WHO as saying COVID-19 patients do not need to isolate, quarantine or observe social distancing.
However, Dr David Samadi is heard making claims regarding asymptomatic patients that,
“They are taking a 360 turn and the WHO is announcing that asymptomatic people out there are not contagious.”
In a contrary statement, Dr Samadi later stated in the video that asymptomatic patients’ risk of passing the virus on to other people is very rare.
What the WHO said on the rarity of asymptomatic transmission
Dubawa found the WHO press conference of Monday 8th June, 2020, where the asymptomatic transmission claims by the WHO were purported to have been made.
During the conference, there was no mention that asymptomatic patients are not contagious. The Covid-19 Technical Lead for WHO, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, was asked about the transmission of asymptomatic patients, and she did mention that the transmission of asymptomatic transmission was rare She, however, added that this was based on the country reports the WHO had received so far:
“We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They’re following asymptomatic cases, they’re following contacts and they’re not finding secondary transmission onward. It’s very rare and much of that is not published in the literature. From the papers that are published, there’s one that came out from Singapore looking at a long-term care facility. There are some household transmission studies where you follow individuals over time and you look at the proportion of those that transmit onwards.”
She further stated that more information from countries would be needed to fully make a conclusion on asymptomatic transmission of coronavirus.
“We are constantly looking at this data and we’re trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question. It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward.”
WHO’s clarification concerning asymptomatic transmission
As it had been generally perceived that the WHO had concluded that asymptomatic patients rarely transmit the virus, the following day, 9th June 2020, the WHO clarified the statements by Dr Kerkhove. The clarification was made via a live Q&A broadcast on COVID-19 transmission.
During the session, Dr Kerkhove acknowledged that her diction ‘very rare’ to describe the transmission rate of asymptomatic patients was miscommunicated. She further noted that her statements from the previous day were based on just two or three studies that have been published on asymptomatic transmission rates and she did not mean that to imply the case of global asymptomatic transmission.
She added that the findings from the studies she referenced in answering questions about the transmission rate of asymptomatic patients was not a policy by the WHO, but just a very small subset of studies known to WHO at the time she spoke.
However, Dr Kerkhove added that asymptomatic patients can transmit the virus as a model shows that an estimate of about 40 per cent of transmission may be due to asymptomatic patients.
“We do know that some people who are asymptomatic, or some people who do not have symptoms, can transmit the virus on,’’ she said.
WHO officials during the broadcast stated that a lot remains unknown about transmission rates and there is still ongoing research on the virus, as scientists are still learning about the virus and how it spreads.
Furthermore, in a publication by the WHO on 11 June 2020, the organisation stated that global research continues to be conducted on the asymptomatic transmission of the virus.
The publication reads: “Comprehensive studies on transmission from asymptomatic patients are difficult to conduct, as they require testing of large population cohorts and more data are needed to better understand and quantify the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. WHO is working with countries around the world, and global researchers, to gain better evidence-based understanding of the disease as a whole, including the role of asymptomatic patients in the transmission of the virus.’’
Several news publications here, here, here, have reported on this clarification by the WHO that evidence of rate of asymptomatic transmission remains globally inconclusive.
What the WHO has said concerning symptomatic transmission
The WHO have stated that it is known that most COVID-19 transmission is by symptomatic patients.
“The majority of transmission that we know about is that people who have symptoms transmit the virus to other people through infectious droplets,” Dr. Kerkhove said.
Conclusion
The claim that the WHO has stated that Covid-19 patients can not transmit the virus is false. The WHO indicated that a few studies have shown that the transmission by asymptomatic patients is very rare, yet it cannot be applied globally as there is ongoing research globally on the spread of the virus and the role of asymptomatic patients in the transmission of the virus.
Further, the WHO stated that there is evidence of the transmissibility of the virus by both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.
