Metro Health Director Explains the Presymptomatic COVID-19 Individual
May 12, 2020 - San Antonio
Interpreting COVID-19 labels. “We continue to remind the public that COVID-19 testing is a snapshot in time,” explained Dr. Dawn Emerick, director of Metro Health. Photo: Jade Esteban Estrada.
By Jade Esteban Estrada - Staff Writer, San Antonio Sentinel
On Monday, Dr. Dawn Emerick, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, reintroduced an underused term in the COVID-19 lexicon. That term, which may soon be applied with more frequency now that the Health Department is on its second day of testing asymptomatic residents, is the presymptomatic individual.
“Our presymptomatic is exactly what that word means,” said Emerick during a televised COVID-19 update with San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. ”It means that [presymptomatic individuals] are contagious, they are positive, but they are not showing any symptoms - yet. This is why masks are so critically important.”
After Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the wearing of face coverings an option in a recent executive order, some San Antonians, in sync with a larger political narrative, have aggressively chosen not to wear masks in public settings despite scientific findings that wearing a mask that covers the nose and mouth has mitigated the spread of the COVID-19.
“So when we are walking around, things are opening up...beautiful day. [The] sunshine’s out...and I’m not seeing a lot of masks,” Emerick said. “And you have no idea who’s around you who can be presymptomatic.”
Emerick said that a presymptomatic individual will develop symptoms over time, but during the time they are not symptomatic, “they will be exposing people during that time.”
“If you get a test and you’re negative, that’s not a licence to go out and do whatever you want,” said Nirenberg. “It just means you were not infected when you got that test. You could be infected the next day. So if you’re cavalier about how you treat other people around you may, in fact, be infected and transmit [COVID-19] to someone else.”
Jade Esteban Estrada is a staff writer at the San Antonio Sentinel, where he covers public health and other citywide issues. He can be reached at jade@sasentinel.com.