Yeah they are. Check the article. By the time people are symptomatic - showing ANY symptoms at all - their viral load is MUCH lower, and far less likely to spread the disease. That's kinda the point; the "I ain't sick" crowd doesn't wear a mask because they don't FEEL sick, so they think they can't BE sick. So they spread it to everyone they interact with and every surface they touch for up to 5 days, and then think THEY caught it from someone else on Day 6, when they start feeling the effects... when all along is has been THEM spreading the disease.
Who came out saying it was rare https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/09/873166418/who-creates-confusion-about-asymptomatic-spread-here-s-what-we-know then they came back and said nah just kidding. Which statement is true? Who knows... This shit is political every bit even maybe more than it is evidence based. It’s like the fed speeches it’s based on truthiness that is intended steer policy making. If it’s true that asymptotic transmission is rare it would be a bad policy move to publicize that and thereby decrease mask usage and increase transmission. The move here isn’t to give you real truth or data it’s to feed you information that will cause you to behave in a way that policy makers think is the optimal result. That’s not even a bad thing but let’s acknowledge that it’s happening.
None of it is political; it's just science being science. You work with the information you have, and then update your viewpoint when better data comes in. You are being intentionally obtuse, and I don't understand why. The article answers your question, and the WHO statement was accurate, for the very narrow interpretation she was representing. It was poor scientific communication, to be sure, but it was not inaccurate within the context that she said it. It's like you are only reading the headlines of each of these articles, and not the content...?
Public policy and science basically can’t coexist on a facts only basis. In order to get action done the severity of the problem is embellished as it goes from scientists to government official. It’s kind of like those dietary studies that you read about on the tabloids. Some minor paper comes out saying that in x decreases heart attacks by a small amount in a study of 30 people and the headlines reads x will help you live forever. The point being in this pandemic the vast majority of communication about covid is “ends justify means” embellishments. Smart people understand how bad things could get and they overstate the actual facts to get others to act the way they think they should. It’s normal human nature and it occurs everywhere. Problem it’s really hard to back these embellishments out and figure out what the reality is.