You're listening to a bonus episode of the Daily Article podcast, presented by the Denison

Forum and featuring Dr. Jim Denison.

Hi, this is Jim Denison with Denison Forum, and this is the Daily Article Special Edition

for April 1st, 2020. By now, you've seen the prediction that the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 could

rise above 100,000 people. We could see 2,214 deaths a day at the nation's peak in two weeks.

One of the most difficult dimensions of this disease is the degree to which it can be transmitted

by people who show no symptoms. The director of the CDC was asked this week if his agency has learned anything new about

the virus in recent weeks.

He stated that, quote, a significant number of individuals that are infected remain asymptomatic.

That may be as many as 25%.

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.

He added that those who develop symptoms are, quote, shedding significant virus probably up to 48

hours before they show symptoms. In other words, every person we meet could infect us

with a deadly virus whether they know it or not, and we could have the virus while being

asymptomatic and infecting others. I am not aware of an analogous medical condition to this.

More Americans die from heart disease and cancer than any other causes, however, neither can be caught

from someone who doesn't know they have the condition. To find an historical parallel, we need to go back

more than a century. According to the CDC, quote, the 1918 influenza pandemic was the most

severe pandemic in recent history.

It is estimated that around 500 million people, one-third of the world's population,

became infected with the virus.

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