In correspondence to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on February 18, 2020 of a group of German national evacuated from Hubei Province, who were screened “for symptoms and clinical signs of infection” before their departure from China and again upon arrival in Frankfurt, found 2 persons with no symptoms but returned a positive PCR test.
“Two of the 114 persons (1.8%) in this cohort of travelers who had passed [asymptomatic] the symptoms-based screening tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR (cycle threshold value in the two samples, 24.39 and 30.25, respectively).” They both remained well with no fever for 7 days post admission.
“In this effort to evacuate 126 people from Wuhan to Frankfurt, a symptom-based screening process was ineffective in detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2 persons who later were found to have evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in a throat swab. We discovered that shedding of potentially infectious virus may occur in persons who have no fever and no signs or only minor signs of infection.”
This correspondence served as “evidence” for Bill Gates once-in-a-century paper ten days later.