zlacker

> COVID-19 is one of the few serious diseases that can transmit when the carrier is asymptomatic.

Is this actually true? It is certainly not true for HIV, and of course is not relevant to diseases like Zika that are transmitted by mosquitos.

Edit: I found the answer to my own question: https://www.kff.org/infographic/ebola-characteristics-and-co... (see second bullet point). Given that this lists Hep C, HIV, Influenza, Malaria, Polio, and Tuberculosis as possible to transmit while asymptomatic, I'd say "COVID-19 is one of the few serious diseases that can transmit when the carrier is asymptomatic." is most definitely false.

>>hn_thr+(OP)
I can clarify it: COVID-19 is just about the only serious respiratory disease that undergoes rapid exponential spread and is transmissible while asymptomatic. That's a lot of qualifiers, but it makes for a uniquely scary pandemic threat.

>>hn_thr+(OP)
As always, it is not a 1-0 situation, but a question of degree.

You can catch flu from an asymptomatic person, but Covid has a much higher reproduction factor. During the winter lockdown in England, regular flu was completely eradicated - literally not a single case was detected in entire England [0]. At the same time, Covid was still spreading happily. The measures that stopped flu in its tracks only slightly inconvenienced SARS-Cov-2.

Covid is simply too good at spreading, compared to other similar diseases.

(As an analogy: I can swim, Michael Phelps can swim, we can both call ourselves swimmers, but we are not really comparable.)

[0]https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/flu-cases-covid-en...

>>hn_thr+(OP)
Why is Malaria in the list?

>>tasssk+ik
Malaria can be (very rarely) transmitted through blood transfusions.

https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/us_transmission.html

>>fuzxi+FA
Or sharing needles! There's a small outbreak in Newark of injection drug users that's one of my favorite "Weird epidemiology papers" for journal clubs.