Coronavirus

[Ducky]

Oh great, he'll recover, tell everyone how un-American it is, call everyone that died from it a pussy.

[Cailleach]

Has anyone seen Varadkar's latest comments on cases and how they are interpreted? Sounds like he is having a change of heart.

From RTE:

Interesting. I said it already more than once in this thread that while I am no supporter of Varadkar, he is one smooth fucking operator.

Yes, he is one slick operator. He has fostered the impression that things were better under his watch. Yet it was under his watch that we had the second highest Nursing Homes death rate in Europe from Covid 19. Also it's as if Leo is above any responsibility for any of the current government mishaps.

[astfgyl]

That is exactly it. I have heard so many people lately saying the likes of "it wasn't this bad with Varadkar and Harris and Tony Holohan". Well it was, but the bonus is that Leo gets to throw the hapless Michael Martin under the bus and he will come out of it shining. It's serious politics he played there.

[astfgyl]

I have a great bit of reading around testing here https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa1491/5912603 which sheds a lot of light on the absolute fuck that has been made of this whole thing worldwide. Anyone interested will have to click through to the pdf but if this doesn't get people to wake up to the whole farce, or at least make them curious enough to start asking serious questions around what they have been led to believe, nothing will. So Trump and his bird testing positive is basically meaningless unless they are actually sick. Not ruling out that they might get sick either, but the whole idea of isolating those who test positive and are not sick has been a sham and yet it continues unabated. Countries who want to double down are massively increasing testing against all logic to keep the cases level up when the reality is that it means fuck all. Why for example are NPHET constantly saying the HSE needs to increase testing when the information is in the public domain about why it is not fit for purpose in the way it is being used to test asymptomatic individuals? Doubling down of course. And here we all were thinking they just wanted to help.

I really wonder if the same testing policy was applied to flu where would we be at? The whole concept of the virulence of this is based on the fact that people test positive, yet people are only tested for flu when they are sick. It's gone beyond ridiculous. I haven't a clue how many positive tests have been announced for a couple of weeks now, but I meet so many people who are simply dying to tell me it's crazy. Some waste of time and resources the whole thing.

The WHO and their "test, test, test" mantra have gotten us all into a right mess here. They have to have known what type of test would be used and how the results would be applied.

[Ducky]

Trump and his bird testing positive means that they've spread it to other people. Didn't he have a fundraiser the other day? No PPE, because of his freedoms of course.

And for the millionth time, drop the fixation with the cold. It's not a fucking cold (or flu), it's much more contagious, dangerous and we don't have the means to contain it. It's not fucking rocket science.

[Ollkiller]

That is exactly it. I have heard so many people lately saying the likes of "it wasn't this bad with Varadkar and Harris and Tony Holohan". Well it was, but the bonus is that Leo gets to throw the hapless Michael Martin under the bus and he will come out of it shining. It's serious politics he played there.

I remember when Martin was announced as Taoiseach. What an own goal. Let Varadker continue and when the inevitable backlash comes you seem far better than wants there.

Now I will say this. With Varadker and Harris the messaging was more clear and concise. FF are making a complete hames of it.

[Ollkiller]

I really wonder if the same testing policy was applied to flu where would we be at? The whole concept of the virulence of this is based on the fact that people test positive, yet people are only tested for flu when they are sick. It's gone beyond ridiculous. I haven't a clue how many positive tests have been announced for a couple of weeks now, but I meet so many people who are simply dying to tell me it's crazy. Some waste of time and resources the whole thing.

The WHO and their "test, test, test" mantra have gotten us all into a right mess here. They have to have known what type of test would be used and how the results would be applied.

The flu has a vaccine. Covid doesn't. So there should be fuckloads of testing. If theres fuckloads of testing then someone who has it can inform their friends who could isolate and not pass it to other people hence saving lives. In fact every cunt should be tested.

[astfgyl]

I really wonder if the same testing policy was applied to flu where would we be at? The whole concept of the virulence of this is based on the fact that people test positive, yet people are only tested for flu when they are sick. It's gone beyond ridiculous. I haven't a clue how many positive tests have been announced for a couple of weeks now, but I meet so many people who are simply dying to tell me it's crazy. Some waste of time and resources the whole thing.

The WHO and their "test, test, test" mantra have gotten us all into a right mess here. They have to have known what type of test would be used and how the results would be applied.

The flu has a vaccine. Covid doesn't. So there should be fuckloads of testing. If theres fuckloads of testing then someone who has it can inform their friends who could isolate and not pass it to other people hence saving lives. In fact every cunt should be tested.

No, they shouldn't. They really really shouldn't.

I take it you haven't really looked into it at all if that is how you feel about it. If the same level of test, trace and isolate was taken for flu then we would save some lives too, but balanced against the cost and consequences it has not been deemed worth it. The flu has a vaccine. It doesn't really work very well. It didn't work at all in 2017 and in a real twist, works the least on those who would need it the most.

I felt as you do about it, that the solution to this would be to just test everyone until one day the realisation hit me. I had no understanding of what a positive test actually meant. If you like I can send you towards some stuff that I was reading and listening to that helped change my mind about it all. Or you can read the PDF I linked up there and then find out how many cycles are used in each country and what the difference there actually means. You are being led down the garden path with all of this, but it isn't your fault as no-one can be expected to give the time it takes to really look into it all, and so everyone gets to take the official word on it at face value. I just happen to have an addictive personality and unlimited patience when I feel I'm chasing something.

The problem with all of this has been in the testing all along. Classic definition of a case would involve symptoms and a positive test of some sort. Definition of a case in this instance has become simply a positive test result, which in itself is essentially meaningless. The tests are a useful research and analysis tool and frighteningly accurate for those purposes, but altogether unsuitable as a diagnostic tool. Without being smart arsed here, have you looked into it at all?

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Trump has mild symptoms, apparently. So far anyway.

[Ollkiller]

Trump has mild symptoms, apparently. So far anyway.

Hes into day 2 or 3 apparently. Day 7 or 8 are the worst so see how he goes.

[Ollkiller]

I really wonder if the same testing policy was applied to flu where would we be at? The whole concept of the virulence of this is based on the fact that people test positive, yet people are only tested for flu when they are sick. It's gone beyond ridiculous. I haven't a clue how many positive tests have been announced for a couple of weeks now, but I meet so many people who are simply dying to tell me it's crazy. Some waste of time and resources the whole thing.

The WHO and their "test, test, test" mantra have gotten us all into a right mess here. They have to have known what type of test would be used and how the results would be applied.

The flu has a vaccine. Covid doesn't. So there should be fuckloads of testing. If theres fuckloads of testing then someone who has it can inform their friends who could isolate and not pass it to other people hence saving lives. In fact every cunt should be tested.

No, they shouldn't. They really really shouldn't.

I take it you haven't really looked into it at all if that is how you feel about it. If the same level of test, trace and isolate was taken for flu then we would save some lives too, but balanced against the cost and consequences it has not been deemed worth it. The flu has a vaccine. It doesn't really work very well. It didn't work at all in 2017 and in a real twist, works the least on those who would need it the most.

I felt as you do about it, that the solution to this would be to just test everyone until one day the realisation hit me. I had no understanding of what a positive test actually meant. If you like I can send you towards some stuff that I was reading and listening to that helped change my mind about it all. Or you can read the PDF I linked up there and then find out how many cycles are used in each country and what the difference there actually means. You are being led down the garden path with all of this, but it isn't your fault as no-one can be expected to give the time it takes to really look into it all, and so everyone gets to take the official word on it at face value. I just happen to have an addictive personality and unlimited patience when I feel I'm chasing something.

The problem with all of this has been in the testing all along. Classic definition of a case would involve symptoms and a positive test of some sort. Definition of a case in this instance has become simply a positive test result, which in itself is essentially meaningless. The tests are a useful research and analysis tool and frighteningly accurate for those purposes, but altogether unsuitable as a diagnostic tool. Without being smart arsed here, have you looked into it at all?

Sure I'll have a look at that PDF and give my view then.

[Caomhaoin]

Trump is in his mid seventies, I wouldn't take anything for granted. He looks robust but who knows?

[astfgyl]

Sure I'll have a look at that PDF and give my view then.

I do think we as a society should take steps to prevent unnecessary deaths among the elderly and vulnerable and also that there are other, more useful metrics than the number of cases which could be used to guide response and any public health measures. The whole flu thing I go on about is a comparison in terms of response. I supported lockdown before it even happened by the way because like everybody else including our government and NPHET, I didn't have the access to the level of data that is out there right now. So what happened is nobody's fault, not even the nursing home deaths. The major difference between myself and the government and NPHET is that I can admit that in the face of the information available now, I got it wrong in the first place. The death count for this is way out of whack but no one can even know for sure now by how much because of how it has been measured. It's a situation that has gotten badly out of hand.

So fair play for at least looking at it, whatever conclusion you come to.

[astfgyl]

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18382647/

Another bit here, draw your own conclusions.

Here is a paper from 2006 "Preparation of a Chimeric Armored RNA as a Versatile Calibrator for Multiple Virus Assays" which specifically mentions "Calibration of the real-time RT-PCR assay for HCV, HIV-1, SARS-CoV1, and SARS-CoV2." 

What gives? https://academic.oup.com/clinchem/article/52/7/1446/5627058

Then this.. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

What am I missing? It must be glaring

[Eoin McLove]

Who's winning in the Corona Virus thread today?


Can I get a HELL YEAH for sneezing into your antecubital fossa!