Did You Know? What’s Wrong with PCR Covid Testing The PCR test is the main test being used to detect the SARS-COV2 virus, & diagnose COVID-19. PCR stands for a polymerase chain reaction. In the case of the SARS-COV2 virus, the PCR test serves to amplify fragments of viral DNA for easier detection. The steps are: Swab…
Tag: Epidemiology
Lifesite News reports “Asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 didn’t occur at all, study of 10 million finds”
A study of almost 10 million people in Wuhan, China, found that asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 did not occur at all, thus undermining the need for lockdowns, which are built on the premise of the virus being unwittingly spread by infectious, asymptomatic people. Published in November in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the paper was compiled by 19 scientists,…
New York Times reports ” Growing Number of Countries Find Cases of the New Virus Variant”
Japan, Spain, France, Sweden and Canada have found small numbers of infections involving a new, potentially more transmissible variant of the coronavirus, most linked to travel from Britain, where it was first detected. The rapid spread of the variant led to the lockdown of London and southern England this week, prompted a temporary French blockade of the…
Lifesite News reports “Minnesota lawmakers claim 40-percent inflation in state COVID death numbers”
State senator Scott Jensen, a practicing physician who is calling for an audit, noted that ‘doctors and hospitals have an incentive to, if you will, massage the numbers.’ Two Minnesota lawmakers have called for an investigation of the state’s COVID-19 mortality data after finding that hundreds of recent deaths may have been misattributed to the…
Lifesite News reports “Former Pfizer VP: ‘No need for vaccines,’ ‘the pandemic is effectively over’”
Dr. Mike Yeadon, Pfizer’s former Vice President and Chief Scientist for Allergy & Respiratory, states that the drive for a universal vaccine has ‘the whiff of evil’ which he ‘will oppose … vigorously.’ While Pfizer pharmaceutical made headlines announcing the imminent release of their COVID-19 vaccine, to much fanfare, a former Vice President and Chief Scientist for the…
Public Health Ontario reports “An Overview of Cycle Threshold Values and their Role in SARS-CoV-2 Real-Time PCR Test Interpretation”
This document provides an overview of Ct values with a focus on how they are determined, their relationship to viral load, and how Ct values may contribute to the interpretation of positive rRT-PCR results among patients with low pretest probability. Key factors that contribute to test performance are also discussed, and guidance on investigating a…
John Hopkins reports “Covid-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data”
The MS in Applied Economics hosted a friendly conversation on a morose topic on November 11, 2020. This presentation was led by Dr. Genevieve Briand, MS in Applied Economics Assistant Program Director. Genevieve went over where the data could be accessed and downloaded. Together with her, event attendees were invited to think critically about the…
Reuters reports “T-cell study adds to debate over duration of COVID-19 immunity”
LONDON (Reuters) – A small but key UK study has found that “cellular immunity” to the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus is present after six months in people who had mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 – suggesting they might have some level of protection for at least that time. Scientists presenting the findings, from 100 non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients…
JB Handley reports “LOCKDOWN LUNACY 4.0: the illusion of control”
The story I will tell my grandchildren someday will go something like this: A totalitarian regime—China—flipped out and locked down an entire city when they discovered a new virus. Most of the world’s leaders, throwing out a century of hard-earned knowledge about how to manage through infectious disease outbreaks, ended up doing the same thing…
Ivor Cummins reports “USA Viral Update – the Latest Data Explained in Brief – Know the Data!”
A lot of USA people asking about the current situation, though I focus more on Europe. But here’s the latest for USA numbers and inferences – please share to our USA friends…