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The missing flu riddle: 'Influenza has been renamed COVID,' maverick epidemiologist says
Just the News ^
| January 1, 2021
| Daniel Payne
Posted on 01/02/2021 8:45:05 AM PST by Hojczyk
Epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski thinks he can answer the riddle.
"Influenza has been renamed COVID in large part," said the former head of biostatistics, epidemiology and research design at Rockefeller University.
"There may be quite a number of influenza cases included in the 'presumed COVID' category of people who have COVID symptoms (which Influenza symptoms can be mistaken for), but are not tested for SARS RNA," Wittkowski told Just the News on Thursday.
Those patients, he argued, "also may have some SARS RNA sitting in their nose while being infected with Influenza, in which case the influenza would be 'confirmed' to be COVID."
Holden Maecker, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University, echoed that assessment. "I feel pretty confident that the COVID-19 mitigation measures have caused the reduction in flu cases this year," he said. "Masks, social distancing, and hand washing are all effective counter-measures against colds and flu."
Speculating on why COVID levels have continued to soar if those measures have been so effective at stopping the flu, Maecker said: "I think it's because (1) there is less pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in the population, whereas most of us have had vaccines and/or previous bouts with flu; and (2) the SARS-CoV-2 virus seems to spread more easily than influenza, including more aerosol transmission and 'super-spreader' events. Flu transmission is almost entirely close-range droplets and hand-to-nose or eyes contact."
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: covid; influenza; wittkowski
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To: Grampa Dave
I love it. even better if Fauci sounds suspiciously like falsey....
81
posted on
01/02/2021 1:27:11 PM PST
by
Mom MD
To: stylin19a
Flubros have been right since day 1.
82
posted on
01/02/2021 1:49:14 PM PST
by
impimp
( )
To: Robert357
83
posted on
01/02/2021 2:14:22 PM PST
by
MarMema
To: mewzilla
We test all suspect cases for flu A/B, RSV, and SARS CoV 2 at the same time.
We have had one positive flu PCR and 500 SARS CoV 2 positives.
84
posted on
01/02/2021 2:17:29 PM PST
by
Jim Noble
(Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning)
To: Mom MD
Try testing fruit and soft drinks for a “COVID positive?” Crank the PCR amplification cycles up too much, and anything tested returns a positive.
To: impimp
been mostly lurking @ flubros ...
Just thought you’d like a heads up...that some got to your\our conclusion a year late.
86
posted on
01/02/2021 3:54:16 PM PST
by
stylin19a
( 2016 - Best.Election.Of.All.Times.Ever.In.The.History.Of.Ever)
To: mewzilla
And if influenza patients can generate a positive WuFlu test result on any of the WuFlu tests?
The only test that can really mix them up is the symptoms-only diagnosis - oh, you have fever and a cough? Must be ChinaVirus! Cha-ching!
A PCR test will help find both, but the results can't be mixed up - the test boosts all the DNA in the sample, then you can simply look for the presence of DNA specific to the virus/bacteria you want. A PCR test is supposed to be used to diagnose a sick person, to determine what they have. Using it willy-nilly, and repeating the cycles nonstop, will result in a tiny presence of a virus in your nose (where your immune's first defenses, mucus, already stopped it) being magnified into being infected. A PCR isn't designed to confirm if you're sick with a particular something, it's used to ID which thing you're sick with.
To: gas_dr
Interesting. Someone mentioned that it's possible that flu enters the US from the Southern Hemisphere and this year it's not arriving as winter approaches. Anecdotally, my grandschild stopped going to school. He has been the vector for colds and flu. None of us have had either since March. Hygiene, that's the silver lining plus pre-school and day cares refusing attendance to kids with symptoms. I hope we never return to working moms dumping kids at school! And cashiers wiping their noses in front of you!!!
88
posted on
01/03/2021 10:01:34 AM PST
by
The Westerner
(Protect the most vulnerable: get the gov out of medicine, education and forests!)
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