[BostonCard]

Right. From what I can tell, that just means they weren't symptomatic when they took the test. They never called those people a week later to see if they were having symptoms.

Lots of the headlines in general press have been misleading. Another big one was the "virus lives on the cruise ships for two weeks" headlines, when only non replicating viral RNA was found.

True. But with many common viruses, there is a sizable group with little to no symptoms. It's amazing how many people test positive for EBV IgG with really high titers, negative IgM, and never knew they were sick.

While I agree, it is also possible that they had some nonspecific symptoms that they attributed to the flu when what they really had was EBV.  Likewise, it is possible that some individuals with coronavirus have nonspecific symptoms like a sore throat or a cough that they don't attribute to coronavirus, and then in a few months, they will have positive IgG.

The key issue would be identifying people pre-symptomatically and then following them prospectively to see if they develop symptoms.  Of course, if you tell someone "you are positive for Covid-19", they might develop symptoms just because they now know (sort of like a placebo effect).

BC

[BostonCard]

Right. From what I can tell, that just means they weren't symptomatic when they took the test. They never called those people a week later to see if they were having symptoms.

Lots of the headlines in general press have been misleading. Another big one was the "virus lives on the cruise ships for two weeks" headlines, when only non replicating viral RNA was found.

True. But with many common viruses, there is a sizable group with little to no symptoms. It's amazing how many people test positive for EBV IgG with really high titers, negative IgM, and never knew they were sick.

While I agree, it is also possible that they had some nonspecific symptoms that they attributed to the flu when what they really had was EBV.  Likewise, it is possible that some individuals with coronavirus have nonspecific symptoms like a sore throat or a cough that they don't attribute to coronavirus, and then in a few months, they will have positive IgG.

The key issue would be identifying people pre-symptomatically and then following them prospectively to see if they develop symptoms.  Of course, if you tell someone "you are positive for Covid-19", they might develop symptoms just because they now know (sort of like a placebo effect).

BC