Georgia governor says he didn’t know asymptomatic people can spread coronavirus
Health experts have been warning for weeks of the possibility that some people can spread the COVID-19 virus despite not showing symptoms, but Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says he just learned of it, The Washington Post reports.
Kemp, a Republican, made the comments Wednesday while announcing a statewide stay-home order aimed at fighting the spread of the virus, The Hill reported.
“Finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs, so what we’ve been telling people from directives from the CDC for weeks now that if you start feeling bad, stay home... those individuals could’ve been infecting people before they ever felt bad,” Kemp said Wednesday at a press briefing, Newsweek reported.
“But we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours,” Kemp said, calling the information “a game-changer,” according to the publication.
He said the information prompted his change of heart about a statewide order, which he’d previously resisted, Newsweek reported.
Earlier warnings issued
Health experts began warning about the possibility at least as far back as Jan. 31, when Dr. Anthony Fauci, allergies and infectious disease director of the National Institutes of Health, discussed it at a coronavirus task force press briefing, reported The Washington Post.
“You know that in the beginning, we were not sure if there were asymptomatic infection, which would make it a much broader outbreak than what we’re saying here; now we know for sure that there are,” Fauci said, according to the publication. “It was not clear whether an asymptomatic person could transmit it to someone while they were asymptomatic. Now we know from a recent report from Germany that that is absolutely the case.”
On March 1, the CDC warned that “some spread might be possible before people show symptoms,” adding that “there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads,” The Washington Post reported.
On Monday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said studies now show that up to 25 percent of coronavirus patients may show no symptoms, NPR reported.
“That’s important, because now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission, and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission,” Redfield said, according to the network.
Online reaction swift
Online reactions to Kemp’s comments were swift.
“This is why we need a national test, trace, and quarantine program,” wrote Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, on Twitter. “Because Governors and Mayors aren’t public health experts, and Kemp isn’t alone in totally misunderstanding the science and making fatal mistakes as a consequence.”
“Everyone in Georgia should be outraged,” wrote entrepreneur William LeGate on Twitter. “We’ve known this for over 3 months now… Brian Kemp is either lying to the public during a pandemic or is dangerously incompetent.”
“There are young children who knew this fact long before the last 24 hours,” wrote Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, on Twitter. “What took Brian Kemp so long to figure this out?”
Georgia has 5,348 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 163 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
More than 965,000 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 49,000 deaths as of April 2, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 216,000 confirmed cases with more than 5,100 deaths.
The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. The United States has declared a national emergency.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Georgia governor says he didn’t know asymptomatic people can spread coronavirus."