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Coronavirus tests too sensitive, Oxford University academic warns. People get positive results even when they had the virus 70 days ago skewing real picture of how many people are contagious
The Telegraph via MSN ^ | 09/0/2020 | Phoebe Southworth

Posted on 09/06/2020 8:59:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Coronavirus tests are giving people positive results even when they had the virus 70 days ago, an Oxford University academic has warned, amid fears they are too sensitive.

Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, said eight days after contracting Covid-19, the chances the infected person will pass the virus on "goes down to zero" if they have no symptoms.

However, he said fragments of the virus can still remain in the body for many weeks afterwards - with some studies showing intermittent shedding up to 70 days later - leading to a positive test and skewing the real picture of how many people are at risk of passing on the virus.

The warning comes after spikes in cases across the UK have led to local lockdowns, despite no increase in hospital admissions, leading to speculation that people are needlessly being told to quarantine.

"After about day eight, you can still find the RNA fragments," Prof Heneghan to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Some studies have reported up to 70 days that you intermittently shed. You can understand the importance of this, because what you want to do is find those with active infection and not those with RNA fragments."

He said it's "one part of the explanation" why more cases are being identified but hospital admissions are not going up - combined with more young people contracting the virus and not being as badly affected.

"Asymptomatics could have had the infection six to eight weeks ago and are still shedding virus intermittently, which we can do through faeces and respiratory samples," he said.

"It's incredibly important we get highly accurate data so we can understand whether the infection is going up or down. At the moment what we're picking up is a lot of noise "

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: chinavirustest; coronavirus; oxford; pcrswabtest
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Covid-19 is currently diagnosed through a swab test known as PCR.

While the test can indicate if a person has the virus present in their body, it cannot say if it is at an infectious stage or how likely it is to be passed on.

1 posted on 09/06/2020 8:59:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

FWIW and it is anecdotal, when I was tested my doctor said they were getting a lot of false positives with the “quick tests” and that many people exhibited no symptoms even when they were “high risk.” My clinic stopped using the PCR tests for that reason and went with the slower and more accurate test.

I know two people who tested positive that should have exhibited symptoms and infected others who lived with them who were vulnerable, but they did not.

I know a middle-aged person who was positive that was very sick.

There are definitely issues with the testing and the labs doing the testing. The anti-body test should demonstrate this?


2 posted on 09/06/2020 9:05:22 AM PDT by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: SeekAndFind

TN Woman Who Died 6 Months Ago Receives Letter Claiming She Has Virus ... https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/04/tennessee-woman-who-died-6-months-ago-receives-letter-claiming-she-has-coronavirus/


3 posted on 09/06/2020 9:13:04 AM PDT by SkyDancer (~ Pilots: Looking Down On People Since 1903 ~)
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To: SeekAndFind

The way the statistics on this have been intentionally distorted for political purposes is almost beyond belief. My brother-in-law who was on hospice care for an aggressive inoperable brain tumor was counted as a “presumptive Covid death” back in March by CDC guidelines.

I worked as the officer in charge of a Hazmat Team for many years. We had equipment that could find traces of chemicals that were insignificant because the amounts were so tiny. It was almost an art form to interprit the results. The problem is that the results could be twisted to fit whatever preconceived notion that the operator had. It is the same with these Covid statistics... once politics became entangled in this situation all of the statistics became basically meaningless.

My wife is a retired nurse and department head; I worked in EMS as a firefighter in a big city department riding to the hospital countless times in the back of a rescue unit with sick and dying people. Since January 21 when the first Covid case was announced here in Washington State, neither of us has personally met anyone who has tested positive or been sick from Covid-19. Her brother who was on hospice care for an inoperable agressive cancerous brain tumor was labled a “presumptive Covid-19 death” but that was our first clue that the statistics were already being skewed for political purposes.


4 posted on 09/06/2020 9:21:08 AM PDT by fireman15
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To: SeekAndFind

Dear Dr. Fauci....Betting you knew this and any surge in testing would produce those magnificaent numbers you were hoping for.


5 posted on 09/06/2020 9:22:36 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: SeekAndFind

Before April 2020 molecular tests could only be called pos if at least 2xmarkers were pos. Too many false pos in molecular testing.
The fda changed that for covid. If the non specific target is pos.. you still have covid.
Funny how weekly changes are happening close to the election.
Detectable is not infectable. Just running up the pos rate.


6 posted on 09/06/2020 9:26:31 AM PDT by momincombatboots (Ephesians 6... who you are really at war with)
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To: volunbeer
There are definitely issues with the testing and the labs doing the testing. The anti-body test should demonstrate this?

In the current political climate none of the figures from any kind of testing program can be trusted. After the election, this thing is going to go away and quickly fade from people's memories. Hopefully this type of abuse of our system will never happen again.

The only useful purpose this buffoonery has served is letting us know how gullible the general public has become... and that is truly scary. I know people who haven't let their parents come to visit their grandchildren because they were afraid the grandparents would make their kid's sick. And we have not been allowed to have funeral for my brother-in-law in nearly 6 months because of an order from our governor.

7 posted on 09/06/2020 9:29:25 AM PDT by fireman15
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To: SeekAndFind

Fauci=Enemy of the US
On Shadow government payroll.

Soros assests in US need to be frozen.
Gates too, for that matter.


8 posted on 09/06/2020 9:35:35 AM PDT by doc maverick
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To: Sacajaweau

I read, here on a link from FreeRepublic, months ago, about the over sensitivity of the test. Fauci had to know this too. That type of test is only supposed to be used in labs for research, but not for making a diagnosis.


9 posted on 09/06/2020 9:37:29 AM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: momincombatboots

“ Detectable is not infectable“ is a mantra that should be commonly know.


10 posted on 09/06/2020 9:39:07 AM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: SeekAndFind

PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction. Its sensitivity is due to the fact that it can replicate a strand of RNA or DNA an infinite number of times. (That’s how they get DNA from tiny spots at crime scenes, for example.)

Our problem is that no test currently available can tell us whether a “positive” test of the virus is infectious or just a dead piece. That is leading to quarantines of perfectly healthy and probably not infectious people for months, and other possibly unnecessary precautions.

Contributing to this is we don’t know what is the minimally infectious dose of live virus. We can only get indirect evidence, which suggests somewhere between greater than one and less than that for measles. (Unless someone wants to be a guinea pig.)


11 posted on 09/06/2020 9:43:23 AM PDT by Missouri gal
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To: SeekAndFind

***I*** am one of those who had to exit work for 14 days b/c of a protein from the freaking virus that I had gotten 4 months before the test! I also tested positive for antibodies on the same day, coincidentally.


12 posted on 09/06/2020 9:47:42 AM PDT by alstewartfan (One day he just washed up on the shores of his regrets. May his soul rest in peace. Al S.)
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To: Missouri gal

They could do viral cultures. But those are time consuming and expensive.


13 posted on 09/06/2020 9:48:51 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: fireman15

Everything is politics FRiend. Everything.


14 posted on 09/06/2020 9:48:56 AM PDT by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: SeekAndFind

“skewing real picture of how many people are contagious”

That helps the Democrats opining about how badly Pres. Trump is handling the Covid-19 outbreak.


15 posted on 09/06/2020 9:54:00 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (Biden's)
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To: SeekAndFind

One of my co-worker’s wives made the mistake of getting a second test at the end of her quarantine after testing positive and it too was positive. That’s when her doctor told her she could still show positive for a couple months. She was upset because her workplace required her to quarantine another two weeks because of the second test.


16 posted on 09/06/2020 10:04:51 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Vote Giant Meteor in 2020)
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To: SeekAndFind

They have not isolated a “Covid 19” virus. The PCR test identifies some proteins found in corona viruses (and other inert materials). It is inappropriate to use this test for diagnosis purposes:

https://off-guardian.org/2020/06/27/covid19-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless/


17 posted on 09/06/2020 10:25:10 AM PDT by MIDad23
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To: SeekAndFind

Using Testing to Control the Population , it must stop


18 posted on 09/06/2020 10:37:29 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: SeekAndFind

Not to mention how people NEVER EVEN TESTED end up receiving POSITIVE for China Flu results.

We know of four people, in our area of Texas, who’ve had this happen.

Multiply that all of the state, and, all across the country.

Enough of this ShamDEMic sham show.


19 posted on 09/06/2020 10:39:13 AM PDT by Jane Long (Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.)
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To: SeekAndFind
ABCCBSCNNNBCNPR as part of the Communist Democrat cabal are now going to blame the tests instead of their own deliberate actions to spread a scamdemic Wuhanic Plague.

They all need to be held accountable for every death, injury, destroyed item, cost, and losses people have suffered at their hand.

20 posted on 09/06/2020 10:50:27 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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