A lot has been made about testing for COVID-19 but it is far from straightforward. There are many publicly acknowledged problems with testing procedures and accuracy of the results. Statistician Nate Silver writes, numbers are meaningless unless you understand how they’re counted.
Browse the articles related to this topic below.
The main thing that went wrong, I believe, was a failure to understand that hospitals would become the vectors for COVID, the epicentres for the infection. We – the hospitals, the decisions taken by the NHS managers with their clipboards – spread the disease, especially among the elderly vulnerable in care homes. A disease that we were trying to stop… killing the elderly and vulnerable.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/488075-nhs-made-covid-19-crisis-worse/
“The two Chinese companies were offering a risky proposition: two million home test kits said to detect antibodies for the coronavirus for at least $20 million, take it or leave it.
The asking price was high, the technology was unproven and the money had to be paid upfront. And the buyer would be required to pick up the crate loads of test kits from a facility in China.
Yet British officials took the deal, according to a senior civil servant involved, then confidently promised tests would be available at pharmacies in as little as two weeks.”
Rapid antibody tests “have limited utility” for patients, the World Health Organization warned in an April 8 statement, telling doctors that such tests remained unfit for clinical purposes until they were proved to be accurate and effective.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/europe/coronavirus-antibody-test-uk.html
The risk of coronavirus for the young is “staggeringly low”, the UK’s top statistician has said – as he condemned the government’s “embarrassing” handling of Covid-19.
He made withering criticisms of the Government’s handling of the crisis, saying its treatment of statistics was “not trustworthy” and amounted to “number theatre” rather than an attempt to properly inform the public.
Covid-19 test kits in Tanzania have raised suspicion after samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw fruit came back with positive results, as the president said there were “technical errors”.
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Monograph One. The Coronavirus Hysteria Series: ‘SARS-CoV-2’, the ‘novel Coronavirus’. A monograph by an independent research consultant on the accuracy of the RT-PCR and antibody tests.
Author:
Dr Kevin P Corbett MSc PhD
KEY ARGUMENTS
Test regulators must publish evidence for this ‘novel Coronavirus’ (‘SARS-CoV-2’) showing viral purification and visualization in order to underpin the gold standard for the respective RT-PCR and antibody tests.
If the ‘novel Coronavirus’ is proven to exist, regulators must then publish evidence showing how this ‘novel Coronavirus’ fulfils Koch’s postulates before it can be assumed that it causes the ‘new’ disease recently termed ‘Covid-19’.
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
No Gold Standard, No Fulfilment of Koch’s Postulates
Viral purification and visualisation prior to test manufacture is the scientific approach for validating how accurately tests perform, known as the gold standard (White and Fenner 1986 p9). This must be followed by proof that any proven viral agent fulfils Koch’s postulates for causation of this ‘new’ disease called ‘Covid-19’ which is currently lacking (e.g. Zhu et al 2020). A forthcoming scientific paper on current RT-PCR/antibody tests for the ‘novel Coronavirus’ (‘SARS-Cov-2’) by leading scientists in the U.S. state of Georgia states:
‘There is no gold standard for COVID-19 since this specific virus has never been properly purified and visualized. Thus, the accuracies of the tests are unknown. The development of these test kits is contrary to the FDA’s guidance document.’
Reliable analytical data is critical for the correct determination of the real presence or absence of COVID-19 infection’ (Ogenstad et al 2020 pp3-4).
The above extract, which was confirmed by the USA Georgia State authors, reveals that the way these tests perform when testing patients/staff has never been properly evaluated in relation to the gold standard of ‘purified virus’. This means that the accuracy of these tests is currently unknown and impossible to judge until more work is completed.
Britain Is Using Flawed Tests
Investigative journalists at London’s Daily Telegraph (Donnelly and Gardner 2020) report that the British test regulator – Public Health England (PHE) – is using flawed ‘novel Coronavirus’ tests (for ‘SARS-CoV-2’) with no real capacity to roll out national screening and testing (Open Democracy 2020) on thousands of UK National Health Service (NHS) patients and workers. PHE is also reportedly giving ‘discordant’ (+/-) results, running in-house testing (aka ‘home brew’), and creating differences between the PHE ‘in-house’ tests and commercially available tests (Donnelly and Gardner 2020).
The Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Test ‘ used for initial hospital screening for the disease Covid-19 (assumed to be caused by this supposed ‘novel Coronavirus’) is thought to detect what is believed to be bits of ‘RNA’ from this ‘novel Coronavirus’. Similarly, the antibody test for this ‘novel Coronavirus’ is assumed to detect viral ‘antibodies’ but in Britain it was proven to be unsuitable (Smythe et al, 2020).
Data sheets (e.g. Roche, 2020) rushed out from the test manufacturers and fast-tracked for clinical use by the US Federal Drug Administration under Emergency Use Authorisation have dropped the requisite caveats that such tests MUST be confirmed by comparison with purified infectious virus – and not just from bits of RNA, the so-called ‘RNAaemia’ of Huang et al (2020 p499) assumed to come from a ‘novel Coronavirus’ based only on molecular/genetic similarity.
All of the above arguments (and more) were first advanced about the ‘isolation’ of ‘HIV’ and its role in AIDS by Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al (2012). However, these sorts of arguments were vehemently and continuously rejected by ‘mainstream’ scientists. As Ogenstad et al are ‘mainstream’ scientists; it is now interesting, one could say highly worrying, to see how these so-called ‘rejected arguments’ are now so adamantly advanced by Ogenstad et al for these RT-PCR/antibody tests. It is highly worrying because the implications and ramifications stemming from what Ogenstad et al are now admitting is that the science underpinning the Lockdown and the continued erosion of our liberties is not just questionable (as is all ‘normal science’ (Kuhn (2012)) but is wrong at worst or fatally misguided at best.
The gold standard for any ‘novel Coronavirus’ test is the best independent way to measure the test’s accuracy at truly detecting those patients with and without the virus, the positive predictive value of the tests (Griner et al 1981). Logically, as the Georgia State U.S. scientists imply, the gold standard must not be bits of RNA (‘RNAaemia’) but “purified virus” confirmed by “purification” and “visualisation” using electron microscopy (White and Fenner,1986 p9). Even then, after what Ogenstad et al (2020) term “the correct determination of the real presence or absence of COVID-19 infection” [SARS-CoV-2, ‘novel Coronavirus’] these conjectured ‘viral’ particles must be rigorously proven to cause the disease through strict criteria called Koch’s postulates (University of Maryland 2020), which have never been fulfilled for the ‘novel Coronavirus’ (Zhu et al 2020, Crowe 2020a).
This may help to explain why the PHE is now reporting ‘discordant results’ (non-binary) where some people test alternatively ‘positive’ and then ‘negative’, with or without symptoms, according to investigative journalists at London’s Daily Telegraph (Donnelly and Garner 2020). These PHE reports match other studies which show how the test is as far from binary (Li et al 2020) as a quantum, the cut-off is in reality totally arbitrary (Young et al 2020), discordant results occur continuously with the same patients (Cao et al 2020, Li et al 2020), and the quantity of RNA totally fails to correlate with illness severity (Young et al 2020).
British test guidance says the precautionary actions governing quality control of the RT-PCR should be expedited to get a definitive result (NHS England and NHS Improvement 2020 p8). This further helps to explain reports showing that people have been advised to return to work too early (false negatives), and vice-versa, people are similarly misadvised – to stay off work unnecessarily (false positives) (Donnelly and Gardner 2020).
Furthermore, the number testing RT-PCR positive (with or without antibodies) is reportedly inaccurate (Donnelly and Gardner 2020) and likely conflates false + true positives: false positives are those testing positive that never had the virus, and false negatives vice-versa. As the Georgia State US scientists openly admit: “the accuracies of the tests are unknown”. Coupled with these problems is the subjective way in which different definitions are made of how a positive test is arrived at (Bustin and Nolan 2017, Crowe 2020b). For example, in the ‘HIV/AIDS’ era this gave rise to a whole set of different generations of test methodologies engendering false and indeterminate results subsequently terrorising patients due to the uncertainty experienced (Corbett 2001, Corbett 2009). The evidence underpinning the accuracy of these ‘novel Coronavirus’ tests have been exhaustively summarised by David Crowe, an independent Canadian researcher, on the London website ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ (Crowe 2020c).
The Georgia State US scientists (Ogenstad et al 2020) show the downside of the global rush to judgement and the dangerous bypassing of the expected precautionary principle with regard to test development. It points to the regulatory veneer of scientific certainty over testing versus the actuality of scientific uncertainty. The fast-tracking of tests together with the fear induced actions of the World Health Organisation and the profit-driven pharmaceutical industry have produced a confluence of interests. This is the background for the panic-driven collusion of the official health authorities – the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and their respective British counterparts (PHE/the British National Institute for Health And Care Excellence (NICE)). Together, under emergency instructions, these forces are rolling out these tests (accuracy ‘unknown’) onto a public who unquestionably believes them to be ‘sound’ and to be ‘binary’. This is an appalling scientific disaster of enormous proportions, implications and ramifications. Ogenstad et al (2020) are clearly admitting that no purified infectious ‘novel Coronavirus’ (‘SARS-Cov-2’) has ever been adequately demonstrated as coming from patients (e.g. see Huang et al 2020). The implication is that the ‘novel Coronavirus’ RNA/antibodies whose veracity are assumed by PHE/FDA may not actually prove to be ‘viral’ but could represent other phenomena. For example some scientists like Andrew Kaufman (Kaufman, 2020) suggest these may be ‘exosomes’, whilst others point to numerous confounding process artefacts (Schierwater et al 2009), or due to the laboratory ‘quality processes’ which appear remarkably open to errors and misinterpretation (Bustin and Nolan 2017). Until the proper research is suitably undertaken (and reproduced) regulators cannot scientifically claim that the tests are accurate.
The Pathology of Lockdown ‘Science’
The ‘science’ underpinning this Lockdown is becoming more and more like the science underpinning Irving Langmuir’s concept of ‘pathological science’ (Langmuir 1953) with its ‘claims of great accuracy’, now refuted (e.g. Imperial College London’s ‘model epidemic’). For example, the fantastic over-reach theories, contrary to human knowledge/experience, of this ‘novel Coronavirus’ that certain contagion occurs through the normal quotidian of ‘touch’; ‘receiving holy communion’; ‘breathing’; ‘sitting on a park bench’; ‘attending funerals’; ‘CPR’; ‘non-invasive ventilation’; and ‘being present with hospitalised loved ones on their death beds’ etc.
This fauxdemic’s ‘high ratio of supporters to critics’ was initially rising but is now acknowledged as falling, as we see an emergent Lockdown ennui amongst politicians, scientists and the general population. All of these italicised characteristics of Langmuir’s ‘pathological science’ are now arguably fulfilled in the case of this ‘novel Coronavirus’ and ‘Covid-19’. This fauxdemic, by bizarrely turning the normal into the abnormal, is arguably looking like another instance of pathological science, such as cold fusion theory. Many scientists have tried to rein in the zealotry of Imperial College London’s epidemiology, but with little apparent success. For example, the work of Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson of Oxford University did not impact greatly in the media or with government even though they showed good evidence that this ‘pandemic’ is a ‘..Late seasonal effect in the Northern Hemisphere on the back of a mild ILI season.’ (‘ILI’=influenza-like illness)(Heneghan and Jefferson 2020).
Furthermore, daily snitch reports by the media show how the mystical spell cast by the pathological science can wear off, as all sections of society can wake up to the reality of what has been so zealously perpetrated in the name of ‘epidemiological science’. This is the creation in the Western world of an inhuman dystopia of prospective mandatory screening, flawed testing and fast-tracked vaccination (akin to Communist China), from which all our elected ‘Free World’ politicians have failed to protect us.
The characteristics of this emerging dystopic order form the thematic of a further monograph in this Coronavirus Hysteria series published by KPC Research and Consultancy Limited.
British Scientific Credibility Compromised
What is not publicly admitted by PHE and is implicit in the above cited reports is PHE’s failure to create testing capacity. This may be due to the rapid NHS public health changes which followed the Lansley NHS reorganisation (Health and Social Care Act 2012). It locally disaggregated services like PHE and exacerbated the existing NHS contract culture (Ham et al 2015). Those highly controversial reforms are now fatally impacting on test-kit purchasing and in-house test evaluation which is required on a UK-wide, and not a local [‘home-brew’] scale and must impact similarly across both the NHS and commercial providers.
The marshalling of testing capacity in the UK is not happening quickly enough as the necessary infrastructure has changed from the 1980s when ‘HIV’ tests were the official panic. The infrastructure developed from the 1980s onward by Phillip Mortimer, and the now extinct Public Health Laboratory Service, created a truly innovative HIV testing strategy using in-house ELISA algorithms, thus dumping the more expensive/less accurate US ones (Corbett 1998). Such British innovation was arguably largely due to Mortimer’s creative scientific leadership of the PHLS (Corbett 1998). At the time of Lansley’s NHS reorganisation, some very erudite and evidence-based warnings went almost entirely unheeded over the subsequent negative effects of the ensuing contract-culture (e.g. Pollock et al 2012).
Lack of Scientific Transparency and Public Accountability
What is very clear now is how our PHE experts seem much less transparent about these failures and the limitations of existing science, unlike their US colleagues (in the leaked report), who are basically calling for the scientific evidence for the existence of this ‘novel Coronavirus’. A lot depends on this as the lockdown continues and civil liberties are severely curtailed (Corbett and Crowe 2020). Other independent researchers have already called for this sort of evidence (Crowe 2020) but their pleas have gone unheeded, or have been dismissed by officialdom just as was the work of Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al.
PHE and other national test regulators like the FDA must now urgently publish reproducible analyses on the ‘proper’ purification and visualisation of this ‘novel Coronavirus’ to underpin the proper gold standard for any associated testing.
CONCLUSION
Our respective test regulators, who in Britain are incapable of supplying the testing technology required for this government-imposed Lockdown, are practising what some call incomplete and erroneous science (OffGuardian 2020). They must be made fully accountable, and be required to address in the terms described in the opening of this monograph, this question:
Where is your evidence for the existence of the ‘novel Coronavirus’, ‘SARS-CoV-2’?
REFERENCES
Bustin S Nolan T (2017) Talking the talk, but not walking the walk: RT?qPCR as a paradigm for the lack of reproducibility in molecular research. European Journal of Clinical Investigation: August 10 https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.12801
Cao S, Wu A, Li J et al.(2020) Recurrent recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a COVID-19 patient, April 15, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-23197/v1
Corbett K (2018) The Regulation of British HIV Testing, 1985-2003. London, KPC Research and Consultancy Ltd.www.kevinpcorbett.com
Corbett, K (2001) Contesting AIDS/HIV: the lay reception of biomedical knowledge. Unpublished PhD thesis, London South Bank University. https://lispac.lsbu.ac.uk/record=b1015575~S1
Corbett, K (2009) ‘You’ve got it, you may have it, you haven’t got it’: multiplicity, heterogeneity, and the unintended consequences of HIV-related tests. Science, Technology and Human Values, 34 (1), pp. 102-125. ISSN 0162-2439.http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1177/0162243907310376
Corbett K, Crowe D (2020) Problems with current UK government lockdown policy. Journal of Advanced Nursing interactive. https://journalofadvancednursing.blogspot.com/2020/04/problems-with-current-uk-government.html
Crowe D (2020a) Flaws in Coronavirus Pandemic Theory. https://theinfectiousmyth.com/book/CoronavirusPanic.pdf
Crowe D (2020b) The Infectious Myth – Simplifying RT-PC.R. The Infectious Myth, April 21. https://theinfectiousmyth.com/coronavirus/RT-PCR_Test_Issues.php
Crowe D (2020c) The Incredible and Scary Truth about COVID-19 Tests. London, Lockdown Sceptics April 26 https://lockdownsceptics.org/the-incredible-and-scary-truth-about-covid-19-tests-2/
Donnelly L, Gardner B (2020) Revealed: NHS staff given flawed coronavirus tests. Leaked memo exposes farce as Covid-19 results are less reliable than first thought because of ‘degraded’ performance. April 21. London. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/21/public-health-england-admits-coronavirus-tests-used-send-nhs/
Griner PF, Mayewski RJ, Mushlin AI (1981) Selection and interpretation of diagnostic tests and procedures. Annals of Internal Medicine 94:559-563.
Ham C, Baird C, Gregory S, Jabbal J, Alderwick H (2015) The NHS under the coalition government. London, King’s Fund. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/field/field_publication_file/the-nhs-under-the-coalition-government-part-one-nhs-reform.pdf
Health and Social Care Act (2012) Health and Social Care Act. London, Her Majesty’s Government http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/contents/enacted
Heneghan C, Jefferson T (2020) COVID-19 deaths compared with ‘Swine Flu’. Oxford University and The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine develops, promotes and disseminates better evidence for healthcare. April 9, https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-deaths-compared-with-swine-flu/
Huang C et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020 Jan 24. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-
6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
Kaufman A (2020) Dr. Andrew Kaufman: Is COVID-19 an Exosome? https://hipegalaxy.com/covid19/dr-andrew-kaufman-is-covid-19-an-exosome/
Kuhn, Thomas S. (2012). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 50th anniversary. Ian Hacking (intro.) (4th ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Langmuir I (1953) Pathological Science. Colloquium at The Knolls Research Laboratory Niskayuna, New York City, New York, December 18, 1953. Transcribed and edited by R. N. Hall. https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ken/Langmuir/langmuir.htm
Li, Y, Yao, L, Li, J, et al. (2020) Stability issues of RT?PCR testing of SARS?CoV?2 for hospitalized patients clinically diagnosed with COVID?19. Journal of Medical Virology, 1,6.https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25786
NHS England and NHS Improvement (2020) Guidance and standard operating procedure COVID-19 virus testing in NHS laboratories. London, NHS England and NHS Improvement. https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/guidance-and-standard-operating-procedure-covid-19-virus-testing-in-nhs-laboratories/
OffGuardian (2020) 12 Experts Questioning the Coronavirus Panic.https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/24/12-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic/
Ogenstad S, Peace K, Liu L (2020) Accurate COVID-19 Testing in Clinical Trials. Unpublished paper submitted to Journal of Bioharmaceutical Statistics.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, E et al.(2012) HIV ‘ A virus like no other. Posted at the Perth Group website July 12th. www.theperthgroup.com/HIV/TPGVirusLikeNoOther.pdf
Pollock A, Macfarlane A, Godden S (2012) Dismantling the signposts to public health? NHS data under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. https://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2364
Roche (2020) Covid-19 Factsheet. Cobas’-SARS-CoV-2. Fact Sheet. Roche Molecular Systems Inc., Pleasanton, California. https://www.fda.gov/media/136047/download
Schierwater B, Metzler D, Kr’uger K, Streit B (2009) The effects of nested primer binding sites on the reproducibility of PCR: mathematical modeling and computer simulation studies. Journal of Computational Biology 3, 235.
Smyth C, Kennedy D, Kenber B ( 2020). “Britain has millions of coronavirus antibody tests, but they don’t work” London April 6. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britain-has-millions-of-coronavirus-antibody-tests-but-they-don-t-work-j7kb55g89
University of Maryland (2020) Koch’s Postulates to Identify the Causative Agent of an Infectious Disease. http://science.umd.edu/classroom/bsci424/BSCI223WebSiteFiles/KochsPostulates.htm
White DO, Fenner FJ. (1986) Medical Virology. San Diego, Academic Press.
Young BE et al. Epidemiologic Features and Clinical Course of Patients Infected With SARSCoV-2 in Singapore. JAMA. 2020 March 3. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762688
Zhu N et al. (2020) A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl Journal of Medicine. January 14. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001017
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Kevin P Corbett completed both undergraduate and postgraduate training in Art at the University of Reading (1979) and The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (1981). Kevin qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1986 becoming part of the commissioned staff for Broderip Ward at The Middlesex Hospital, London, Britain’s first purpose-built HIV/AIDS unit, opened by Princess Diana in 1987. Postgraduate nursing research followed at King’s College London (1987-1989) into improving metred dose inhalation through patient training in the physiology of the inhaled route. This won support from the Stimulating Progress fund of London’s North East Thames Regional Health Authority and Vitalograph Ltd (UK). Doctoral research (1995-2001) focused on patients’ indeterminate experiences of the tests used in HIV/AIDS, the ELISA, Western blot and PCR tests. Kevin has more than thirty years’ experience in gaining ‘150k+ in research funds for leading and participating as principal and co-instigator. He is a qualified nurse educator who has worked in university education, research and public health at Kingston/St.George’s University of London, University of York, Liverpool John Moores, Canterbury Christ Church University and Middlesex University. Kevin also has experience in acute clinical, forensic and community nursing with over one hundred research outputs in peer-reviewed, patient-reviewed and citizen science publications. Current research and consultancy is focused on human physiology, visual art and citizen participation in science and technology.
ACKNOWELDGEMENTS
KPC Research and Consultancy Limited gratefully acknowledge the valuable feedback received from all of the reviewers during preparation of the manuscript revision prior to publication. Monograph design by KPC Research and Consultancy Limited.
Kevin P. Corbett has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work. All rights reserved.
© Kevin P. Corbett
ISBN 978-1-5272-6214-0
Designed and Printed in Great Britain
KPC Research and Consultancy Ltd
[email protected]
www.kevinpcorbett.com
Monograph freely available for download at:
https://kevinpcorbett.com/onewebmedia/WHERE%20IS%20THE%20EVIDENCE%20FOR%20THE%20EXISTENCE%20OF%20THE%20CORONAVIRUS%20FINAL.pdf
How to cite this monograph:
Corbett K (2020) Monograph One. Where is the Evidence For The Existence of The ‘novel Coronavirus’, SARS-CoV-2? The Coronahysteria Series:’SARS-CoV-2′, the ‘novel Coronavirus’. London, KPC Research and Consultancy Limited. April 2020. ISBN 978-1-5272-6214-0
The horrible truth is that it now looks like in many of the early cases, the disease was probably caught in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. That is where the virus kept returning, in the lungs of sick people, and that is where the next person often caught it, including plenty of healthcare workers. Many of these may not have realised they had it, or thought they had a mild cold. They then gave it to yet more elderly patients who were in hospital for other reasons, some of whom were sent back to care homes when the National Health Service made space on the wards for the expected wave of coronavirus patients.
Once the epidemic is under control in hospitals and care homes, the disease might die out anyway, even without lockdown. In sharp contrast to the pattern among the elderly, children do not transmit the virus much if at all. A recent review by paediatricians could not find a single case of a child passing the disease on and said the evidence ‘consistently demonstrates reduced infection and infectivity of children in the transmission chain’. One boy who caught it while skiing failed to give it to 170 contacts, but he also had both flu and a cold, which he donated to two siblings. Children appear to have ACE2 receptors, the cellular lock that the coronavirus picks, in their noses but not their lungs.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/we-know-everything-and-nothing-about-covid
In short, far more people will receive false-positive results than true-positive results. Up to 60% of those released back into the workforce could be at risk of infection themselves and unknowingly spreading the disease to others, sparking a second wave of the epidemic. If the true prevalence of the disease in the population is as low as 1% then this figure could rise to 80%.
Understanding the startling rates of false positives and false negatives for tests that seem, on the surface, to be quite accurate could have profound consequences for health policy as we travel deeper into this pandemic. Failing to do our mathematical due diligence has the potential to take us past the tipping point beyond which the epidemic starts to grow again, leading to even more avoidable deaths.
Perspectives on the Pandemic – Episode 6: When Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Antin Massihi held a press conference on April 22nd about the results of testing they conducted at their urgent care facilities around Bakersfield, California, the video, uploaded by a local ABC news affiliate, went viral. After reaching five million views, YouTube took it down on the grounds that it “violated community standards.” We followed up with the doctors to determine what was so dangerous about their message. What we discovered were reasonable and well-meaning professionals whose voices should be heard.
With the prevalence of coronavirus infection running at about 5%, test manufacturers and regulators alike will have to guard against false positives.
Approximately 20% of people had an increase in antibodies against influenza in their blood after an influenza “season”. However, about three-quarters of infections were symptom-free, or so mild they weren’t identified through weekly questioning about whether participants had a cough, cold, sore throat, or a “flu-like illness”.
https://www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/three-quarters-of-people-with-flu-have-no-symptoms/
This video has been removed by YouTube so a Bitchute mirror is provided below. Please wait after pressing the play button. It may take longer than usual to load the video.
It is a common laboratory practice to propagate viruses in cell culture. While convenient, these methodologies often result in unintentional genetic alterations, which have led to adaptation and even attenuation in animal models of disease. An example is the attenuation of hantaviruses (family: Bunyaviridae, genus: Hantavirus) when cultured in vitro. In this case, viruses propagated in the natural reservoir species cause disease in nonhuman primates that closely mimics the human disease, but passaging in cell culture attenuates these viruses to the extent that do not cause any measurable disease in nonhuman primates. As efforts to develop animal models progress, it will be important to take into account the influences that culture in vitro may have on the virulence of viruses. In this review we discuss this phenomenon in the context of past and recent examples in the published literature.
How it works, why we need it, and why it’s taking so damn long for the US to get people diagnosed.
https://www.wired.com/story/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coronavirus-testing/
At present, polymerise chain reaction (PCR) and antibody testing are the dominant ways that global healthcare systems are testing citizens for Covid-19. Both techniques have their caveats, and as the crisis unfolds researchers are looking into alternative ways to screen for the deadly disease. Chloe Kent looks into the science behind PCR and serology, and what alternatives are starting to present themselves.
Different paths to the same destination: screening for Covid-19
A scientist at Public Health England said the in-house tests that have been in use since February are performing worse than commercial kits, which labs have been advised to switch to by the end of the month.
Coronavirus tests given to thousands of NHS staff so they could return to work have been found to be flawed and should no longer be relied on, a leaked document reveals.
A memo sent by PHE’s senior lab team flags up several concerns about the tests, despite the fact hundreds of thousands have been carried out
The industry of mass-testing the population at least twice per month was laid out in the National Covid-19 Testing Action Plan by The Rockefeller Foundation, published in April 2020.
Note: See embedded video below for commentary from Fiona Marie Flanagan and Dave Cullen.
We’ve been hijacked by our technologies, but left illiterate about what they actually mean. In this case, I am in the rare position of having known, spent time with, and interviewed the inventor of the method used in the presently available Covid-19 tests, which is called PCR, (Polymerase Chain Reaction.)