Grover Gardner wrote:
"If you test positive or negative for COVID-19 on a viral or an antibody test, you still should take preventive measures to protect yourself and others.
We do not know yet if people who recover from COVID-19 can get infected again. Scientists are working to understand this."
Nobody with IQ more than their shoe size disagrees with that statement.
We are discussing totally different issue here. Both Atlantic and Samadi claim CDC is encouraging putting all corona virus numbers into a single basket. Is their claim true, and if so why is CDC doing it?
Corona is a family of viruses. COVID-19 is a new strain of Corona Virus.
CDC Explains:
Quote:
COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. The COVID-19 is the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, Hubei province, China.
Since December 2019, cases have been identified in a growing number of countries. The District’s surveillance data can be found here.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
As individuals, we are only concerned about COVID-19 virus, not the entire family of Corona Viruses.
If the tests detect only COVID-19, there is no problem. OTOH, if the tests detect entire family of Corona Viruses, we may have false numbers.
The two sources seem to be claiming that these general Coronavirus test numbers are lumped together with COVID-19 numbers go give artificially high numbers for COVID-19. Can I prove either way? Not at this time, I have spend enough time on the subject.
Last week, a source (dont recall which one) claimed that about 20% of the population in the source is already infected. I believe that report to be true to all of the world as far as coronavirus infections are concerned.
During the peak of infections in the north, in a study conducted in NY state of 250,000 people, they found 14% of the people were infected with coronavirus, mostly asymptomatic. (see link below). I did not see any discussion about that important study in the media.
The real question is, are the numbers reported correct? Is CDC deliberately trying to blurr the lines between COVID-19 and Coronavius test results?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/23/coronavirus-new-york-millions-residents-may-have-been-infected-antibody-test/3012920001/I will try to lookup and post my findings in a day or two.
Well, Shashi, I don't think *anybody* trusts the CDC at this point. It's been almost completely neutered, in a near literal sense of the word. I trust members of my family, many of whom have spent decades in medicine and research, including people at NIH and the FDA, who are very clear that this is NOT the like the usual seasonal flus we see. It is far more contagious, virulent and unpredictable. When it comes to nunbers, I see it as a bit like the bureaucracy under the old French Republic. Governments came and governments went, but the bureaucracy literally kept the country going out of sheer force of habit. Bureaucrats in Texas and Florida and Arizona report the numbers, whether the governors or the senators like it or not. And the numbers are not encouraging.