The Role of Pre-Symptomatic Transmission of the Virus

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People can get, can be infected. By the way, does the technical definition of infected just mean I have the virus in my body or is it something more definite? Right. It means it's replicating in your body. And that's one, and then I can start showing symptoms. One of the issues here with this particular strain is that you can become contagious before you show symptoms. So those people who are out walking around still feeling well, but can spread the virus are accounting for maybe a quarter or more of new cases. But we don't know again how much those individuals are driving transmission.

This is a special episode of Mindscape, thrown together quickly. Many thanks to Tara Smith for joining me on short notice. Tara is an epidemiologist, and a great person to talk to about the novel coronavirus (and its associated disease, COVID-19) pandemic currently threatening the world. We talk about what viruses are, how they spread, and a lot of the science behind virology and pandemics. We also take a practical turn, talking about what measures (washing hands, social distancing, self-isolation) are useful at combating the spread of the virus, and which (wearing masks) are probably not. Then we look to the future, to ask what the endgame here is; Tara suggests that the kind of drastic measure we are currently putting up with might last a long time indeed.

Tara Smith received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Toledo. She is currently Professor of Epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health. She has researched and written extensively about diseases such as ebola and MRSA. She is an active science communicator, and writes regular columns for SELF magazine.

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