Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33899740›Full record

ArticleeLife2021

High infectiousness immediately before COVID-19 symptom onset highlights the importance of continued contact tracing.

William S Hart, Philip K Maini, Robin N Thompson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
40citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

40 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Flexible Bayesian estimation of incubation times.American journal of epidemiology · 2025
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  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
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  11. Analysis of the risk and pre-emptive control of viral outbreaks accounting for within-host dynamics: SARS-CoV-2 as a case study.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
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  15. Article
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  17. Article
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  20. Observational
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

William S HartMathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-2504-6860
Philip K MainiMathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-0146-9164
Robin N ThompsonMathematics Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-8545-5212

Funding

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Excellence Award
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Understanding changes in infectiousness during SARS-COV-2 infections is critical to assess the effectiveness of public health measures such as contact tracing. Methods: Here, we develop a novel mechanistic approach to infer the infectiousness profile of SARS-COV-2-infected individuals using data from known infector-infectee pairs. We compare estimates of key epidemiological quantities generated using our mechanistic method with analogous estimates generated using previous approaches. Results: The mechanistic method provides an improved fit to data from SARS-CoV-2 infector-infectee pairs compared to commonly used approaches. Our best-fitting model indicates a high proportion of presymptomatic transmissions, with many transmissions occurring shortly before the infector develops symptoms. Conclusions: High infectiousness immediately prior to symptom onset highlights the importance of continued contact tracing until effective vaccines have been distributed widely, even if contacts from a short time window before symptom onset alone are traced. Funding: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Indexed as

Carrier StateContact TracingCOVID-19Health PolicyHumansModels, TheoreticalPublic HealthRisk FactorsSARS-CoV-2contact tracingCOVID-19epidemiologygeneration timeglobal healthinfectiousness profilemathematical modellingpresymptomatic transmissionvirus

Identifiers

PMID33899740
PMCPMC8195606

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.