As an analogy, people who test positive for HIV don't necessarily have AIDS. However, as a better-understood disease, AIDS has a very specific set of diagnostic criteria, e.g., they must have a CD4+ T cells count less than 200 cells/mm³.

COVID-19 research is still ongoing and the diagnostic criteria aren't as clear cut. In the future we may have a clear definition of what it means to be diagnosed with COVID-19, in which case whether or not there are obvious symptoms will become irrelevant.

In the short term, it's probably safer to refer to asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 or of the coronavirus in common parlance.

As an analogy, people who test positive for HIV don't necessarily have AIDS. However, as a better-understood disease, AIDS has a very specific set of diagnostic criteria, e.g., they must have a CD4+ T cells count less than 200 cells/mm³.

COVID-19 research is still ongoing and the diagnostic criteria aren't as clear cut. In the future we may have a clear definition of what it means to be diagnosed with COVID-19, in which case whether or not there are obvious symptoms will become irrelevant.

In the short term, it's probably safer to refer to asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 or of the coronavirus in common parlance.

As an analogy, people who test positive for HIV don't necessarily have AIDS. However, as a better-understood disease, AIDS has a very specific set of diagnostic criteria, e.g., they must have a CD4+ T cells count less than 200 cells/mm³.

COVID-19 research is still ongoing and the diagnostic criteria aren't as clear cut. In the future we may have a clear definition of what it means to be diagnosed with COVID-19, in which case whether or not there are obvious symptoms will become irrelevant.

In the short term, it's probably safer to refer to asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 or of the coronavirus in common parlance.

As an analogy, people who test positive for HIV don't necessarily have AIDS. However, as a better-understood disease, AIDS has a very specific set of diagnostic criteria, e.g., they must have a CD4+ T cells count less than 200 cells/mm³.

COVID-19 research is still ongoing and the diagnostic criteria aren't as clear cut. In the future we may have a clear definition of what it means to be diagnosed with COVID-19, in which case whether or not there are obvious symptoms will become irrelevant.

In the short term, it's probably safer to refer to asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 or of the coronavirus in common parlance.