Even when vaccines are becoming more readily available in the United States, protecting against asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) What cause COVID-19 is the key to ending the pandemic, say two infectious disease experts from Georgetown.
In his perspective, “SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Without Symptoms” published on March 19, 2021 in the magazine Science, Angela L. Rasmussen, PhD, and Saskia V. Popescu, PhD, MA, affiliated professors at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, argue that symptom-free transmission silently leads to viral spread and is the key to the end of the pandemic.
“Determining the true transmission capacity of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases is inherently complex, but knowledge gaps should not undermine the recognition of their role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” write the authors.
“We cannot rely on vaccination alone to control the pandemic,” says Rasmussen. “Vaccines are great for protecting people from disease, but we still don’t know how well they work to protect against transmission.”
Rasmussen says that from a biological perspective, it would be unlikely that a vaccine that protects well against disease would not protect against infections. “But just as vaccines do not offer one hundred percent protection against disease, neither are they one hundred percent likely to protect against transmission.”
In addition, although vaccines are supposed to become widely available in the United States in the summer, this is not the case in the rest of the world, where the pandemic remains unshakable.
“Asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission represents a unique challenge for public health and infection prevention efforts,” says Popescu. “Ultimately, this is something that we will need to keep our eyes on continuously as we move into the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and a reduction in disease due to vaccinations.”
Rasmussen and Popescu conclude: “Until there is widespread implementation of robust surveillance and epidemiological measures that will allow us to extinguish these smokeless fires, the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be fully extinguished.”
Reference: “SARS-CoV-2 transmission without symptoms” by Angela L. Rasmussen and Saskia V. Popescu, March 19, 2021, Science.
DOI: 10.1126 / science.abf9569