Why testing asymptomatic coronavirus cases matters

'Transmission without symptoms critically contributes to the unabated spread of SARS-CoV-2 and presents a considerable infection prevention challenge. Although asymptomatic individuals appear to be contagious for a shorter period of time and may pose a lower transmission risk, they still pose a substantial public health risk as they are more likely to be out in the community. It is unclear how vaccination will affect the number of asymptomatic cases, although preliminary data suggest that mass immunization will reduce infection overall, thus reducing transmission,' write Angela L Rasmussen and Saskia V Popescu in science.sciencemag.org, here.