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  1. Abdul Ansari's avatar

    I am shell shocked. Dale was an exemplary and creative moral philosophy, rigorously engaged with the most foundational issues across…

  2. David Wallace's avatar

    This is sharply at variance with my understanding of the situation. The general consensus for some while has been that…

  3. David W Shoemaker's avatar

    This is shocking and tragic news. I’ve known Dale since we tried to hire him at Bowling Green State way…

  4. Dan Dennis's avatar

    On the plus side, advances are being made in missile defence – including in laser technology (‘star wars’) – which…

  5. mark bernstein's avatar
  6. Peaceful IR Realist's avatar

    Yes, Ellsberg’s experience was in the 50s and 60s. I don’t know enough about these issues to have anything meaningful…

  7. Mark's avatar

    I haven’t read The Doomsday Machine, but wasn’t Ellsberg’s experience in the 50s and 60s? When Eisenhower was writing pre-delegation…

More than 43% of patients testing positive for the new coronavirus were asymptomatic…

…in this town in Italy.   [Link now fixed.] Strikingly, symptomatic and asymptomatic patients had similar viral loads on their systems.   All patients cleared the virus from their bodies in roughly 8-13 days.

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4 responses to “More than 43% of patients testing positive for the new coronavirus were asymptomatic…”

  1. The NY Times reports that half of 1100 sailors on an infected Navy ship are asymptomatic, although it's not clear how many of those might still show symptoms:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/world/europe/france-navy-ship-coronavirus.html

    I think nearly 20% of infected people on the Diamond Princess were asymptomatic, although the demographic there surely skews older.

  2. Given that the symptomatic/asymptomatic issue is going to become a political football, it is probably important to pay attention to definitions. They defined symptomatic as "fever and/or cough".

    Also, no children were infected. I assumed that the China data indicating this was because the kids were asymptomatic, but it looks like they really didn't get infected. This is important because we have closed schools assuming that kids would be their usual infectious selves.

  3. Robert Lee said: "Also, no children were infected. I assumed that the China data indicating this was because the kids were asymptomatic, but it looks like they really didn't get infected. This is important because we have closed schools assuming that kids would be their usual infectious selves.". I think this is a little misleading. The study involved testing ca 2500 people, and finding (on one set of tests) 73 positives and then later, on the second set, 29 positives. So we are dealing with a relatively low number of people tested in each age group, and a relatively low number of positive tests. Hard to draw conclusions for people in any age band from that limited data. Also, children were infected, just not in the 0-10 age group.

    Various other studies and reports from around the world show children (of all ages) do get infected, although at lower rates, and are less likely to develop severe illness. I think it's hard to draw obvious lessons about the wisdom of school closings because when schools close, far more happens (or doesn't happen) than just that children don't meet in class.

  4. True enough, and yes the numbers are a bit small (there is about a 1% chance of getting a zero for that age group with a 1.7% overall infection rate). However, my point is the children are not just at a lower risk for serious complications but also a lower risk for spread, which is quite atypical. That, presumably, will impact decisions about opening schools in the fall.

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