Let’s say you have two rooms with 100 people inside.

Virus-A is released in room 1 and by the end of 12 hours everyone in the room tests positive but only 10 people are “sick”. Meaning fever, aches, and cough.

Virus-B is released in room 2 and at the end of 24 hours everyone in the room tests positive but now 90 people are “sick”.

Which one is more contagious? In my mind it is Virus-A since it spread faster, but it seems to me some people in the media are using the definition of Virus-B. They only care if people actually show symptoms.

Is this scenario possible in the real world? Let’s say unbeknownst to us there was a virus last year that spread faster than Covid-19 but resulted in very little people showing symptoms since almost no one showed signs no one got tested so we didn’t even know it was that contagious.