[Pearls Before Swine]

Mods: Looked for this on today's Forum, but didn't find it.

I think this is a very important item, as it one of the early antibody tests of a man-on-the-street population cross-section for COVID antibodies.

I don't know anything about the specificity or accuracy of the test, but I note that: - It was conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) - It was truly anonymous, which makes it more likely that people would agree to a drop of blood finger-pric test - It yielded a surprisingly high number (30%) of people who had been challenged by the virus

Chelsea is a small city near Boston, which has had an unusually high number of diagnosed COVID cases--about 750 out of a population of 40,000, which would mean that 1 out of 50, roughly 2% of the population, had symptoms significant enough to seek out testing. But here, a man on the street test shows that 30% have actually been challenged by the virus. The difference is a factor of 15. Recently, there was a report from a Stanford group estimating that the factor could be as high as 50 to 85.

The mayor is an idiot... concluding that the high prevalence of infection means that greater control of the population is in order. In fact, the high prevalence means that there are many more mild or unnonticed cases than previously thought. I find that encouraging. As do most of the commenters to the article.

[heartwood]

Chelsea is a very heavily Hispanic city, probably younger than average, probably different ideas about social distancing.

[BenLurkin]

“The Mass. General study took samples from 200 residents on the street...”

Well there’s a scientific sampling if ever there was one.

[null and void]

30% with antibodies. What percentage is regarded as "herd immunity"?

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

The false positive rate was 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's or one old fart’s life, it's worth it.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This thing has been around for a long time. They just happened to pick it to launch their pandemic hysteria attack against Trump and pretended it was “novel.”

[lonestar67]

The Blue Privilege aspects of this are fascinating:

1. Massachussetts allows a non FDA approved test to be used. Red states would not be allowed to do this. The Elite would go nuts.

2. They are allowed to do anonymous testing on people and not let them know that they are positive. This would be deemed inhumane in a Red State.

[Bonemaker]

“One third of participants in Massachusetts study tested positive for antibodies linked to coronavirus”

Probably two thirds of them would test positive for ignorance.

[gitmo]

A lot of potential Typhoid Marys walking around out there.

[bramps]

We built thousands and thousands of hospital beds that we don’t need. We built thousands and thousands of ventilators that we don’t need.

But we aren’t now pushing all these companies to build testing equipment and preparing personnel to do testing all over the country in mind blowing numbers.

All we are told is that we can’t do it.

I want President Trump to win in November but he is very lucky that I am not evil and running the Democratic party because I would pummel this issue as it could end this virus tomorrow. It’s very strange to me why these steps are not taking place.

[ifinnegan]

Sobering.

There’s just more and more data being gathered showing the same thing.

Sobering in that it’s time to sober up as a nation and focus on hot spots like Boston, and importantly try to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly in homes.

It’s widespread, not as deadly as thought, time to open up.

These data are incredibly good news.

[FreedomPoster]

Here are some links about the Stanford group / one of the key players:

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was one of the participants in the recent Santa Clara study that was quite interesting.

Preprint of the paper.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v1

Conclusions The population prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Santa Clara County implies that the infection is much more widespread than indicated by the number of confirmed cases. Population prevalence estimates can now be used to calibrate epidemic and mortality projections.

News item
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/far-more-people-may-have-been-infected-by-coronavirus-in-santa-clara-county-study-estimates/ar-BB12Oznb

Good interview with him:
The Fight against COVID-19: An Update from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7v2F3usNVA

[Montaignes Cat]

The “D” in Covid stands for Disease, namely Corona Virus Disease. But there is a medically recognized difference between Disease and Infection. So in this study 30% are infected but do not have the Disease. This significantly changes the numbers that have been used to order responses. We’ve been baited and switched.

[Maris Crane]

Could someone tell me the salient point in this brief excerpt.

Plain words...is finding antibodies a good thing or a bad thing?

I am not in the medical field and I don’t play one on TV.

[TChad]

What is the false-positive rate of the test?

[lepton]

That level of discordance suggests there is something wrong with the testing. If it were actually that high it would have long since stopped spreading - and things like NYC would not be happening.

[IndispensableDestiny]

Did the hospital state the false positive rate for the test?

[Tallguy]

Chelsea is linked via subway to Logan Airport and the rest of Boston. We know that the virus survives longest on smooth plastic and metallic surfaces like those found at airports & mass transit systems. NY, Boston, Philadelphia have all been hit pretty hard while west coast cities haven’t despite serviced by more direct air links with China itself.

The virus has been percolating in the eastern seaboard longer than anybody cared to admit. CDC should be looking for a trade show or some other event late last year as the kickoff event. That event could also have been in Europe with a significant number of attendees.

[Hot Tabasco]

That's a confusing article. I thought that having the antibodies means you have already encountered the disease and beaten it off.....

My nephew already had the virus and has now tested negative so he would naturally have the antibodies...

What am I missing?