Jun 14, 2020

Review of 16 cohorts found 40-45% of people who tested positive with RT-PCR using nasopharyngeal swabs are asymptomatic

Review published in Annals of Internal Medicine https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3012 and covered by Time  https://time.com/5848949/covid-19-asymptomatic-spread/

This can profoundly impact the utility of COVID-19 screening for symptoms before clinical procedures such as pulmonary function testing since, even though the asymptomatic people appear to shed virus at the same rate as symptomatic people, they will pass the symptom screening.