Health Team

Can coronavirus spread without symptoms? Wake family questions county's advice

A Wake County family is raising concerns about coronavirus advice they're getting from county leaders, which they say is inaccurate.

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By
Laura Leslie
, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief
RALEIGH, N.C. — A Wake County family is raising concerns about coronavirus advice they're getting from county leaders, which they say is inaccurate.

A letter sent Thursday by the Wake County Public School System to parents said county health officials had assured them: "If someone is not showing signs of illness, they are not contagious and do not pose a risk to others."

Kerry Stenke said she was reading the letter when that line caught her eye.

"That's just wrong. It can't be spun," Stenke said Friday.

She said she checked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical blogs from Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities.

According to the CDC website, "Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads."
Stenke's husband, Mike, has diabetes, which puts him at a higher risk for serious illness from coronavirus, and the couple has two children in the school system. So they're paying close attention to the spread of the virus and said they don't think county leaders are being honest with people.

"I think they’re putting that out either because they don't know better, which would be a surprise, or because they want to reduce the possibility of a panic," Kerry Stenke said. "But that second one makes me think that they don't understand how bad this could get."

Wake County public health officials issued a statement Friday afternoon that responding to coronavirus is a continually evolving situation and the details the CDC shares with state and local health agencies "often outpace what is posted on the [CDC] website."

"While the scientific community still believes there is a very low likelihood of contracting COVID-19 from an asymptomatic person, we cannot say that there is a zero chance of transmission," the health department said. "However, we can say with certainty that, if you are known to be at risk of exposure to COVID-19, a member of the Wake County Public Health Division will contact you directly."

The Stenkes said they don't want to cause a panic, which they said wouldn't help anyone. But they do want a fuller, more transparent explanation of what officials do and don't know.

"They can't discount the facts because there are basic actionable things that we can do to try to prevent the spread or at least to mitigate it," Mike Stenke said.

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