Coronavirus updates: WHO says asymptomatic transmission 'open question' - BBC News
A senior official had earlier said it was "very rare" for asymptomatic people to pass the disease on.
Prof Heneghan said the data showed it was best to get coronavirus under the age of 45 Image caption: Prof Heneghan said the data showed it was best to get coronavirus under the age of 45

Society will need to have "rational debates" about when is the least risky age to be infected with coronavirus if a vaccine does not materialise, an expert has said.

Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford, said Covid-19 is behaving in a way similar to seasonal flu in its disproportionate impact on the elderly.

He told a Science Media Centre briefing: "It matters when you get infections in relation to your risk - I think that's incredibly important.

"So we will start to have some rational debates, because many infections, we know if you get them when you're very young you actually do very well, for instance chickenpox, you get that when you're young and you confer immunity.

"So, if you took away the concept that there were no vaccinations, let's park that aside and this becomes a circulating endemic infection, we will start to have to have a debate around when is it better to get this infection?

"If you look at the data, it is when you're under 45. As you get older then it's worse for you."