You know it is good news when CNN and their bobbleheads are very upset. On Monday, the CDC updated its testing guidelines to say that not everyone needs to get a test for COVID-19: You only need a test if you have symptoms or have had close contact with an infected individual. They have finally defined close contact to be within six feet for at least 15 minutes.
Direct quote from the updated guidelines:
If you do not have COVID-19 symptoms and have not had close contact with someone known to have a COVID-19 infection – You do not need to be tested.
The guidance went even further:
If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms:
- You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.
It goes on to say that if you are not at high risk, you should monitor yourself for symptoms and get testing under the protocols for symptomatic individuals. This revision should bring an immediate end to screening protocols for employers, schools, and just about everywhere else. And though Dr. Leana Wen, former Planned Parenthood director, says this makes no sense, it is actually entirely consistent.
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On July 17, 2020, the agency updated its guidelines to discourage retesting individuals who have recovered from COVID-19. This change was a research-based decision attributed to a greater understanding of how long a person remains infectious. Additionally, it highlighted one of the significant flaws in the PCR test used to detect the virus.
According to the guidance:
If you take a test and test positive, you do not need to repeat a test. Unless your illness required hospitalization, you can return to normal activities (e.g., work or school) after the passage of 10 days from the onset of symptoms and 24 hours from when any fever has subsided on its own (without the aid of any fever-reducing medications).
Research cited on the site has demonstrated that a person with symptoms is no longer infectious under these conditions. In order to be contagious, a person must be harboring viruses capable of replicating with a load significant enough to transmit the disease. These parameters appear to have been established to the CDC’s satisfaction. Generally, the agency has been quite conservative in its assessments, so the evidence must be substantial.
When the CDC advised against retesting, it specifically stated that the PCR test can amplify RNA from a virus no longer capable of replicating for 90 days post-recovery. It would be typical to find this in recovered patients after their immune system has defeated COVID-19.
It can also be found in individuals who have never been infected by the virus. A positive test has never indicated an active infection or the ability to transmit the disease to others in the absence of symptoms. It could simply mean an individual has reactive T cells that eliminate COVID-19 through an exquisite and healthy immune response. This process may still leave viral debris in their airway that a PCR test can detect.
Dr. Beda M. Stadler, a Swiss biologist, emeritus professor, and former director of the Institute of Immunology at the University of Bern, asserted this following the T-cell reactivity findings published in several journals (emphasis mine):
So if we do a PCR corona test on an immune person, it is not a virus that is detected, but a small shattered part of the viral genome. The test comes back positive for as long as there are tiny shattered parts of the virus left. Correct: Even if the infectious viruses are long dead, a corona test can come back positive, because the PCR method multiplies even a tiny fraction of the viral genetic material enough [to be detected].
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This reasoning is the same rationale the CDC gives for not retesting recovered individuals. With the addition of research into the specifics of the viral load that must be present to transmit the virus, they have refined their guidelines to follow the science.
All of this information should also help you discard the idea, asserted earlier this week, that there is a man in Hong Kong who was “reinfected.” An infection causes symptoms. Despite being hospitalized, it appears this man never developed any, because his immune system functioned as designed.
Yes, a new genetic strain was detected, so it was not viral debris from his previous infection. However, he developed a healthy amount of anti-bodies, and his T cells recognized enough of the virus to react. He never got sick. This reaction happens in our bodies routinely when we encounter pathogens we have seen all or part of before.
1) Second infection was asymptomatic. While immunity was not enough to block reinfection, it protected the person from disease. (2/n) pic.twitter.com/C65F8ff5UN
— Prof. Akiko Iwasaki (@VirusesImmunity) August 24, 2020
I hate to disagree with a doctor from Yale, but the patient was not reinfected if he had no symptoms. There is no evidence that he had virus particles capable of replication or transmission. If a PCR test was used, it could easily have amplified RNA that remained after a robust immune response. The only reason we got to observe this man’s normal, healthy immune response was because of screening protocols.
University of Hong Kong scientists claim to have the first evidence of someone being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Genetic tests revealed that a 33-year-old man returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain in mid-August had a different strain of the coronavirus than the one he’d previously been infected with in March, said Dr. Kelvin Kai-Wang To, the microbiologist who led the work.
The man had mild symptoms the first time and none the second time; his more recent infection was detected through screening and testing at the Hong Kong airport.
The CDC revised its guidance on testing after the announcement from Hong Kong, so that pretty much lets the cat out of the bag. I would venture a guess that if confronted, Dr. Redfield would have to admit that the myth of the asymptomatic super-spreader is pretty much over.
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Now, everyone who admonishes us for not believing in science is denying science. America’s worst governor is very upset:
The CDC reversed its guidance to say that people in close contact with a COVID-positive person don't need to get tested.
This is not science. It’s politics. Politics that are dangerous to public health.
It's indefensible.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 26, 2020
The weightlifter’s brother is wrong. This decision was absolutely based on science. His continued oppression of his state is based on politics. And it is his policies related to nursing home patients that are indefensible.
The CDC will most likely begin monitoring for COVID-19 the way they track the flu. They will test individuals who present with flu-like illnesses in their doctor’s office or the emergency room. And Dr. Birx has been clear about the need for sentinel testing in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Ultimately, this guidance will lead to more accurate counts of cases, where people have an active infection.
It is the beginning of the end for panic porn from the corporate media and justification for needless lockdowns and mandates. It is a great day indeed.
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