The WHO put out a statement yesterday that was very unclear and which a lot of virologist and epidemiologists are strongly disagreeing with. They said that asymptomatic spread of Covid is extremely rare. What virologists are saying is that a distinction needs to be made between people who are truly asymptomatic, meaning they get covid and never get symptoms, and those who are pre-symptomatic, meaning they will get symptoms but it is during the incubation period after infection when they are not yet symptomatic.
Most virologists have said they think quite a lot of transmission is occurring from people who are presymptomatic. In fact, there's one study swabbing the backs of people's throats and finding the highest concentration of virus on the first day of symptoms. The WHO did not release data with this statement and it's not even clear what they said is true with respect to true asymptomatics.
Anyhow, many people interpreted what they said to mean that only people with symptoms are spreading the virus. This is extremely unlikely to be true, but believing it's true might make people think they're safer than they really are around others outside their household. Hopefully they issue a clarification.
Edit: For those who are interested this is a good thread from the director of Harvard Global Health Institute
https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/statu...69131652427776