Posted on 02/04/2021 1:16:05 PM PST by RomanSoldier19
In November, as fall was fading, Matt Binnicker began to hunker down for a hard winter. The coronavirus had already infected an estimated 13 million people nationwide, and his team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was now peering over the precipice of flu season, when every coughing, feverish patient would need not one diagnostic test, but two.
Determined to stay one step ahead, Binnicker’s lab had worked furiously to develop its own influenza test in order to amp up capacity. On December 1, the team began screening all patients with respiratory symptoms for both viruses.
In the two months since, thousands of tests have turned up positive for the coronavirus. But the tally for the flu has held constant. The lab has run 20,000 flu tests—10 times as many as it processed the season before—and zero have come back positive.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Is it possible that the coronavirus test is picking up things that are a tiny bit of the flu? There’s no way that there have been zero confirmed cases of the flu. Maybe the test for the flu requires a massive amount of it in order to come back positive. What if they use 40 cycles (amplifications) to test for coronavirus but only 20 to test for the flu. That would explain a lot.
Statistically impossible.
Someone is fudging the numbers.
All the COVID-19 shutdowns and prevention measures worked on the flu, even if it only marginally worked on COVID.
No. The RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 triggers on the specific genetic bits that differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from all other viruses, including SARS-CoV-1. They're literally the parts of its genome that make SARS-CoV-2 SARS-CoV-2 and NOT something else.
Further, Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are radically different viruses. They're as closely related as humans are to snails. Genome size of SARS-CoV-2 is 29,903 bases. Each SARS-CoV-2 virion is 50–200 nanometres in diameter. Genome size for Influenza viruses is 10,000–14,600 bases. In other words, 1/3 to 1/2 the genome length, depending on the strain. They’re 80-120nm in diameter. The chances of confusing the two are exactly zero.
"There’s no way that there have been zero confirmed cases of the flu."
Since September 30th, there have been 524,037 flu tests in the United States with 1,276 coming up positive. There's some flu around, but it's having a very difficult time spreading this year. Most likely explanation is that since it spreads similar to how COVID-19 does but is far less contagious (R0 of 1-1.3 for Influenza vs 4.3-5.7 for latest COVID-19 variants), the control measures in place (e.g. masks and social distancing) that have had limited effect on COVID-19 have been absolutely crushing Influenza's transmission rate.
Someone is fudging the numbers.
Alternatively the new test is completely ineffective and worthless.
“There’s some flu around, but it’s having a very difficult time spreading this year”
Total BS conclusion. The conclusion is that even the flu is guessed at every year and this past year the guesses went to COVID instead. Period. End of story.
There is something positive to say about the pandemic:
The Influenza testing is specific to Influenza and certain flu tests provide the precise strain and lineage. The testing for SARS-CoV-2 is specific to SARS-CoV-2 and triggers on the precise genetic sequences that differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from all other viruses.
Influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 are as similar to one another as humans and snails. They aren't even in the same phylum. There is zero chance of any testing failing to distinguish between the two. CDC guidelines state that laboratory testing must always be performed before claiming something is COVID-19 whenever it's possible to do so.
Your claims do not make sense in light of the facts.
Those are not the only “facts” that contribute to the discussion. Those are limited and short-sighted things you chose to support your ridiculous conclusions.
Someone is fudging the numbers.
Alternatively the new test is completely ineffective and worthless.
Yes, that is possible. It is also possible there is universal error in the processing system.
But, the fact that they have done 20,000 tests, and not one has come back positive, is a huge red flag. All tests have some percentage, however small, of false positives.
That seems unlikely.
If your claim is correct, then how is it there have been so many documented cases of false positives for SARS-CoV-2?
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it is alerting clinical laboratory staff and healthcare providers that false positive results can occur with COVID-19 antigen tests.
Sorry, you need to learn to do research. I’m not your research librarian. That, and you really need to learn the scientific method and not jump to wild conclusions.
Flu cases are down everywhere. That’s a good thing. What, exactly, is the benefit in denying the seriousness of Covid at this point? Covid is incredibly dangerous and we should not be opening up like its business as usual. We need to remain vigilant.
Two things:
The only “logical” conclusion is that masks and social distancing have performed miracles in ridding the world of influenza. Unfortunately, masks and social distancing just aren’t that effective in preventing coronavirus.
Ridiculous.
Your posts tend to include a lot of technical data. Would it be possible to include links to the sources of that data? I think it would help a lot of people struggling with these debates to get a better feel for what is going on.
‘The chances of confusing the two are exactly zero.’
perhaps true, but only in a sane world; we are dealing with a government-media-healthcare triumirate which is incentivized to produce covid cases to bolster its control over the populace...
or are you saying that our leaders are above such ethical manipulations, and that they would never count flu positives as covid...?
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