Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp recently admitted that he didn't know that asymptomatic people could spread coronavirus. NBC News reports that Kemp confessed as much during a Wednesday press conference. Medical professionals have warned it was a possibility months ago, but Kemp said he just recently learned "that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs."
He continued, "So what we've been telling people from directives from the CDC for weeks now, that if you start feeling bad stay home, those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already indicated the virus incubation period is anywhere between two to 14 days, which would mean that people could carry the virus while asymptomatic and unknowingly spread the disease to both vulnerable and healthy people. On March 30, the CDC explicitly said that asymptomatic individuals were capable of infecting others, but Dr. Anthony Fauci said "asymptomatic transmission" was a real threat back in January.
"Well we didn't know that until the last 24 hours," Kemp incredulously added. "This is a game-changer for us." At the same press conference, he issued a shelter-in-place order for the state of Georgia. The order goes into effect on Friday, and will last through April 13 at least. He said that Georgia needs time to prepare hospitals for an expected increase of COVID-19 positive patients. The state currently has over 4,700 confirmed cases and 154 deaths as of this week.
See what people had to say about Kemp's late- to-the-party revelation below. As you can guess, they were pretty unforgiving.
