Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

More than a third of patients who contract COVID-19 might not show symptoms, according to new information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The estimates were part of a document posted on the CDC website. The agency said its "best estimate" is that .4% of people who contract COVID-19 will die, but also warned those numbers can change.

Some health experts pushed back on that number.

"While most of these numbers are reasonable, the mortality rates shade far too low," biologist Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington told CNN.

"Estimates of the numbers infected in places like NYC are way out of line with these estimates. Let us remember that the number of deaths in NYC right now are far more than we would expect if every adult and child in the city had been infected with a flu-like virus. This is not the flu. It is COVID."

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More than 1.5 million cases have been confirmed in the U.S. and more than 95,000 people have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, more than 5 million have been infected, and about 331,000 have died.

Latest Developments

United States:

-Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended the state's safer-at-home order for another two weeks, through June 12. This means businesses like movie theaters, casinos and gyms must stay closed, according to WJRT-TV.

-President Donald Trump says the country won't shut down again if a second wave of COVID-19 infections sweeps the nation. "People say that’s a very distinct possibility. It's standard," Trump told reporters Thursday during a tour of a Ford plant in Michigan, according to the Hill. "And we're going to put out the fires. We're not going to close the country. We’re going to put out the fires."

-Defense Secretary Mark Esper said a COVID-19 vaccine is possible by the end of the year. "Absolutely it's possible, and I've spoken to our medical experts about this," Esper said during a Friday interview on NBC's Today Show. "We are completely confident that we can get this done." Several vaccines are in the works, although many health experts have warned it could be more than a year before they are available for distribution.

-Beaches and hotels in Miami-Dade County, which has the highest number of known COVID-19 cases in Florida, will reopen June 1. Miami-Dade has reported more than 16,000 COVID-19 infections, about one-third of all cases statewide. More than 600 people have died in the county.

-The mayor of Baltimore is asking Trump to delay a planned Memorial Day visit to the city's Fort McHenry. "It sends a bad, bad message to the citizens of Baltimore because I’m asking them to stay home and only come out for essential reasons ... and I just want him to set the example for the rest of the country and not do this trip, because it's not essential," Mayor Bernard "Jack" Young told CNN.

-U.S. air travel edged up heading into the Memorial Day weekend, with more than 300,000 people passing through airport security checkpoints on Thursday. That's the most since March, when coronavirus restrictions shut down much of the country, according to CNN.

-The Minnesota State Fair has been canceled for the first time in 70 years.

-Worldwide:

-The World Health Organization says suspensions in some countries of routine childhood shots like measles immunizations have put the lives of nearly 80 million babies at risk, the Associated Press reported.

-Sheltering and recovery efforts from Tropical Cyclone Amphan's devastation in India and Bangladesh has been complicated by the pandemic. Aid groups said some 3 million people were in shelters Friday, and hundreds of thousands of lost their homes.

-British researchers are launching a COVID-19 vaccine trial that will include 10,000 people, the AP reported.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.