Why do some people get COVID19 symptoms while others don’t?

Here’s what we know about why some people display symptoms of coronavirus while others don’t.

A mother checks a child's fever

Recent studies suggest that as many as 80% or more of those infected are “silent carriers”, meaning they show no or very mild symptoms. 

The reasons why are likely to come down to how your immune system responds to the virus.

Having a strong immune response during the incubation period can prevent the infection taking hold, reduce the actual quantity of virus in the body and prevent it from getting to the lungs.

There is currently no good evidence that asymptomatic people are able to pass it on; to calculate the true proportions of people who have no symptoms right through to severe illness requires testing to be expanded across whole populations which isn’t feasible yet. 

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the full article here [opens external link].

Byline

Abela Mahimbo, University of Technology Sydney; David Isaacs, University of Sydney; Melanie Wong, Kids Research; Melissa Kang, University of Technology Sydney
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