[apatters]

Are you saying that asymptomatic patients are equally likely to spread Covid as symptomatic patients? I don't think the study supports that conclusion.

If you read the Conclusions section, it absolutely does not make that conclusion.

The only sentence in the study which might support that idea is the one you quoted, but I think that's a misreading -- infectivity is a specific term in epidemiology that refers to how effective a pathogen is at establishing an infection. The virus can have the same infectivity in two patients, but one can still be more or less likely to spread it because they have a higher/lower viral load, cough more/less, wear a mask/don't wear a mask, etc.

In fact I'm pretty sure I remember the WHO saying last year that they thought asymptomatic patients are less likely to spread the disease because they aren't coughing and sneezing, which are the primary means of transmission.

Also, please don't call people names, it's against the HN guidelines, if you think he exposed a bunch of people to Covid without knowing it, you can just say that.

[incanus77]

Fair. No, I wasn't necessarily saying the same re: spreading, more so that asymptomatic carriers can spread, and thus aren't immune to needing to be considerate of those beyond themselves.

No one will ever know for sure if the person in question did infect others, which is sadly just the grey area that some need to see it fully their way.