The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic
Authors: Daniel P. Oran, Eric J. Topol
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2021)

LettersSeptember 2021The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are AsymptomaticFREEDaniel P. Oran, AM, Eric J. Topol, MDDaniel P. Oran, AMSearch for more papers by this author, Eric J. Topol, MDSearch for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L21-0491 SectionsAboutVisual AbstractPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE: As noted in our review, we included data published as of 17 November 2020. Because of typically long lead times in journal publishing, it is inevitable that the data were collected before the widespread circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern mentioned by Drs. Yang and Ma. In addition, all of the studies that they cite were published after the publication of our review. As new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern emerge and the mix of variants in widespread circulation changes, we agree that it will be important to reassess the prevalence of asymptomatic infection.We are in the midst of a profound transformation in how scientific knowledge is disseminated. As recently as 30 years ago, the gating factors in scientific publishing were the speed of postal mail and the high costs of printing. Today, ubiquitous access to the internet allows for nearly instantaneous transmission at an infinitesimal price. The logical and welcome result has been the rise of preprint articles.Peer review certainly serves a valuable role in scientific publishing, usually boosting the quality of the output. However, in the current publishing environment, relying exclusively on peer-reviewed articles as the definitive source of scientific knowledge would be a mistake. Instead, we must become more discriminating consumers of scientific publications—from both peer-reviewed journals and preprint servers—and learn to assess for ourselves the quality and merit of the knowledge that is being shared.In preparing our systematic review, we carefully evaluated the preprint articles that met our criteria for inclusion. We believe that they were of sufficiently high quality to include in our analysis, particularly because they provided knowledge that was not available from peer-reviewed sources. In the midst of a pandemic in which our findings might be useful to both clinicians and policymakers, we decided that this was the most prudent course of action. Comments 0 Comments Sign In to Submit A Comment Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAuthors: Daniel P. Oran, AM; Eric J. Topol, MDDisclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M20-6976. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoThe Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic Daniel P. Oran and Eric J. Topol The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic Ali Haider Bangash The Proportion of SARS-CoV-2 Infections That Are Asymptomatic Fan Yang , Dan Ma Metrics Cited byDesign and Implementation of a National SARS-CoV-2 Monitoring Program in England: REACT-1 StudyEstimating the Period Prevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection During the Omicron (BA.1) Surge in New York City (NYC), 1 January to 16 March 2022High Asymptomatic Carriage With the Omicron Variant in South AfricaBridging Knowledge Gaps in the Diagnosis and Management of Neuropsychiatric Sequelae of COVID-19Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections after COVID-19 immunizationMucosal Vaccines, Sterilizing Immunity, and the Future of SARS-CoV-2 VirulencePrevalence of Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the General Population of the Veneto Region: Results of a Screening Campaign with Third-Generation Rapid Antigen Tests in the Pre-Vaccine EraLiving with ‘Long COVID-19’: The long-term complications and sequelae September 2021Volume 174, Issue 9 Page: 1344-1345 ePublished: 21 September 2021 Issue Published: September 2021 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2021 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...