Group Think & Guess Work Taints COVID19 Medical Diagnoses
Is perception of the COVID19 pandemic worsening from incorrect medical diagnoses and poor access to data? And is the resultant junk science promulgating government strategies deadlier than the disease itself?
Lucid minds have identified that the only thing a positive test can show is that there is ‘some’ coronavirus in a patient. The standard test, itself, is not designed to measure the viral load, the key to determining disease causation.
Thus, a truism is emerging as the world endures social and economic shutdown: sick people with COVID19’s flu-like symptoms may be dying with coronavirus but not from coronavirus,
Start with the test methodology: As the Navy Times tells us:
“The current method looks for the virus’s genetic material (RNA) in a patient’s cells. In order to detect the presence of RNA in the patient’s sample, labs perform a test called reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. This method first converts any viral RNA to DNA. Then the DNA is replicated millions of times until there are enough copies to detect using a specialized piece of equipment called a quantitative PCR instrument. If genetic material from the virus is found in the sample, then the patient is infected with the virus.” [1]
It is the DNA replication step which precludes establishing the crucial metric: viral load, which we address later.
With such a lack of data to make any meaningful identification of all the COVID19 geographical ‘hot spots‘ in our towns and cities, it is impossible to apply precisely targeted quarantine measures.
So the whole world’s citizenry must endure mass house arrest. But as each week passes, the economic and social fallout may be far more damaging than the disease itself. Jobs disappearing, businesses failing, incomes obliterated, lives ruined.
In the United States alone, calculations show that there are currently 46 jobs lost for every confirmed case of COVID-19. [2]
All this is occurring due to a pandemic narrative built without reliable data. As has been admitted in the US by Dr Nancy Messonnier, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention some tests are producing “inconclusive” results. [3]
What is clear is that the vast number of confirmed deaths are among patients who have co-morbidities (such as cancer, flu, pneumonia and other diseases associated with a weak immune system).
Sufferers who could just as likely have died from their other illnesses are being hastily and wrongly counted in the COVID19 numbers.
Why is there so much confusion in disease identification?
According to Isaiah (Shy) Arkin, a professor of Structural Biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem COVID19 is:
“incredibly similar to SARS Coronavirus 1, that was responsible for the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003 [which killed 774 people worldwide]…SARS is the disease; SARS Coronavirus-1 is the virus that causes the disease. The current disease is called COVID-19 and the virus is called SARS Coronavirus-2.” [4]
And we never found a fix for SARS Coronavirus-1. That sounds apocalyptic.
“No, no, no. I don’t want to elicit any sort of panic. So, first of all, the new virus is very, very, very, very similar to the one that the research community found in 2002-2003. The thing that caused SARS in 2002-2003 is very, very similar — as I said, 80 percent identical — to the thing that’s causing COVID-19. So it’s not as if this is coming out of nowhere.” – Professor Arkin, [id.]
The real irony here is that overall morbidity may be lower this year for respiratory diseases generally – all part of the fog of (virus) war. What really won’t help is discovering that thousands of test kits have been contaminated with the virus prior to delivery. [5]
Another part of the fogginess is the startling statistic from Europe that the overall death toll this year is LOWER than other years. That is what the euroMOMO data from 24 EU countries reveals. [6]
graph: www.euromomo.eu
Is it not then a reasonable inference – with the backdrop of LOWER overall deaths this year – that COVID19 is likely being mistakenly misdiagnosed in place of the more ‘normal’ seasonal pathogens which present very similar symptoms?
Adding to the murk is that hospitals are performing far fewer autopsies than they did decades ago. So much so, that it is reliably reported that “more than 70,000 people die in U.S. hospitals every year with major missed diagnoses.” [7]
Bodies are being buried/cremated with no proven cause of death. No one really knows the numbers. It is guesswork.
Getting us even more clouded is that the widely used PCR test is very sensitive. You may get a ‘positive’ and have genuinely been exposed, but not have any symptoms. Compounding the issue is that there is no evidence that COVID19, or any other variant of a pathogenic virus particle, has been isolated.
Some experts argue ELISA testing needs to be happening as well. But Elisa test is controversial. There is an argument that specific antibodies cannot be attributed to specific virus particles because isolation is not possible. All methods are indirect and therefore not provable.
The BBC, not surprisingly, is dutifully backing mass societal shutdown during the pandemic. This is despite their own admissions the tests are problematic and results are showing too many negatives, when positives for COVID19 should be counted.
As BBC reporter, James Gallagher, reveals in ‘Are coronavirus tests flawed?’ [8]
“Meanwhile, officials in the epicentre of the epidemic, Hubei province, China, have started counting people with symptoms rather than using the tests for final confirmation.”
Do you see how medics overwhelmed with cases react: “counting symptoms rather than relying on tests.”
A study in the journal Radiology also showed such tests were unreliable anyway and thus undermining doctors’ confidence in them. [9]
The BBC’s James Gallagher then asks this question: What are these tests and is there a problem with them?
Gallagher explains, affirming what the Navy Times already told us (above):
“They work by looking for the genetic code of the virus. A sample is taken from the patient. Then, in the laboratory, the virus’s genetic code (if it’s there) is extracted and repeatedly copied [emphasis added], making tiny quantities vast and detectable.
These “RT-PCR” tests, widely used in medicine to diagnose viruses such as HIV and influenza, are normally highly reliable.
“They are very robust tests generally, with a low false-positive and a low false-negative rate,” Dr Nathalie MacDermott, of King’s College London, says.” [id.]
But a glaring omission is made in the above. Neither Dr MacDermott or James Gallagher explains that it is because of the test’s need to ‘repeatedly copy’ the virus’s genetic code that the actual viral load is thereby rendered incalculable.
In short, the tests cannot tell us how many viruses are in the sample. A higher viral burden or viral load often correlates with the severity of an active viral infection.
Moreover, in the vast majority of reported cases of COVID19 there is co-morbidity. That is, other illnesses afflicting the patient at the very same time – the majority of deceased patients were at or around normal lifespan (75-80 years of age).
While there exist other tests to standardize the “weight” or value of comorbid conditions, no one test is as yet recognized as a standard.
And for sure, during the current pandemic hospitals are pressed for time and resources to perform any such additional tests. Another problem, particularly in the US, is over-the-phone diagnosis, which lends itself to skewed data, as reported here:
“Doctors classifying their ill patients with 2 different codes – one code is Covid-19 positive the other code is a general flu including Covid-19 – those that are told to quarantine themselves for 14 days over the phone by their doctor. Both are being counted in Covid-19 cases. [emphasis added] Those that are dying of undetermined causes are having Covid-19 tests ordered upon death with results coming a week or two later. They are being counted as deaths for Covid-19 when causes of death is filled out.” – Dr.Shiva Ayyadurai (an MIT PhD in Biological Engineering) [10]
Medical professionals thus may feel compelled to surrender to the powerful media-driven narrative. Data is incomplete, gaps get filled by guesswork and group think. Thereby, the prevailing narrative is re-affirmed in a Catch-22. Witness the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Does any of this sound like the man-made global warming controversy which blames the trace gas carbon dioxide as our planet’s climate control knob?
“Bad news sells.”
As with the prevailing man-made global warming narrative the drivers of the narrative are UN official bodies. With climate change we get the UN IPCC. With COVID19 we have the discredited World Health Organisation (WHO).
So, the mainstream media (as it does in complicity with the IPCC) resorts to their usual hyperbole and will play on our subjectivity and emotion which eventually overrides medical prudence.
Doctors will become more susceptible to judge that when patients exhibit COVID19 symptoms (essentially the same symptoms as flu and pneumonia) they should apply the precautionary principle i.e. ‘play safe’ and simply register all such patients as suffering from COVID19.
Certainly, the climate doomsayers may be taking a back seat for now but their playbook of stoking fear and alarm for the purpose of diminishing our economic and social freedoms remains at work.
As the group think contagion continues we should remember these words from influential scientist, Carl Sagan (image, above):
“I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make my own judgments.” – Carl Sagan
[1] https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/03/14/explainer-how-do-you-test-for-coronavirus/,Navy Times (March 13, 2020)’ Explainer: How do you test for coronavirus?’Maureen Ferran, Rochester Institute of Technology
[2] https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/shocking-9-million-americans-have-now-filed-unemployment-benefits-lockdowns-began”US Labor Market Is In Free-Fall” – 10 Million Americans Have Filed For Unemployment In Past 2 Weeks, Tyler Durden (April 02, 2020).
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/t0212-cdc-telebriefing-transcript.html, CDC, (February 12, 2020)
[4] https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scientist-youre-not-going-to-see-millions-of-people-die-from-covid-19/‘Israeli scientist: You’re not going to see millions of people die from COVID-19’ David Horovitz, (March 18, 2020).
[5] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/30/uks-attempt-ramp-coronavirus-testing-hindered-key-components/‘Coronavirus testing effort hampered by kits contaminated with Covid-19’ Bill Gardner (March 30, 2020)
[6] https://principia-scientific.com/shock-report-current-eu-total-deaths-per-week-lower-than-normal/ ‘SHOCK REPORT: Current EU Total Deaths Per Week LOWER Than Normal’ Jim Hoft (March 30, 2020)
[7] https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/05/dont-autopsies-anymore/‘Why We Don’t Do Autopsies Anymore’ Brendan Reilly, M.D. (May 08, 2017)
[8] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51491763‘Are coronavirus tests flawed?’
[9] https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020200343 ‘Chest CT for Typical 2019-nCoV Pneumonia: Relationship to Negative RT-PCR Testing’ RSNA, (February 12, 2020)
[10] https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/mit-biologist-and-inventer-of-email-dr-shiva-ayyadurai-says-deep-state-fear-mongering-on-coronavirus-will-go-down-as-biggest-fraud-to-manipulate-economies/ ‘MIT Biologist and Inventor of Email – Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai – Says Deep State Fear Mongering on Coronavirus Will Go Down as Biggest Fraud to Manipulate Economies’ Jim Hoft, (March 12 2020)
About the author: John O’Sullivan John is CEO and co-founder (with Dr Tim Ball) of Principia Scientific International (PSI). John is a seasoned science writer and legal analyst who assisted Dr Ball in defeating world leading climate expert, Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann in the ‘science trial of the century‘. O’Sullivan is credited as the visionary who formed the original ‘Slayers’ group of scientists in 2010 who then collaborated in creating the world’s first full-volume debunk of the greenhouse gas theory plus their new follow-up book.
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Michael Clarke
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Excellent reporting John!
You must have had some training as a Logician!
There are some alarming consequences of the government lock-down rules as applied here in Australia. Old people locked up with no family contact are dying, I know of two in the facility I live in that passed away this week. They just gave up wanting to live!
We now live in almost 100% solitary confinement. No visitors, No organized activities, No social activities with more than two participants. Social distancing, so hard to watch a communal TV. Long faces all around. Some are taking these new rules very hard and sort of rebelling needing to touch people who walk past them.
If anyone coughs or sneezes they become targeted as potentially infected.
There is a sign at the servery where we queue for meals that states:-
‘Wash your hands, No Coughing or Sneezing when queueing for meals.
Please do not blow your nose while in the queue.’
The nearest hand sanitizer station is 10 meters away!
In short the government rules that apply to the general population are being applied to a small rigidly controlled elderly population, in isolation and who are not at risk of getting the virus.
Unless of course a Staff member brings it in!
Michael Logician
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John O'Sullivan
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Thanks, Michael. Yours is the kind of feedback that needs to be heeded by ‘do gooder’ politicians who have not considered the unintended consequences of their mass house arrest of us all.
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richard
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Mr O’Sullivan, I need hope. What are your plans. I want to see heads roll. Of course they never do, the wagons are circled and the same cr.. dished out.
How is a man like , Neil Ferguson, taken seriously . All his have predictions have been wrong, today and in the past.
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John O'Sullivan
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Hi Richard, We continue to build a body of evidence showing government alarmism and misfeasance. As with the GIGO government computer models for climate change we see history repeating itself with Professor Ferguson and his GIGO modeling for the ‘pandemic’. Readers may recall Ferguson spewed the same brand of alarmism during the fake swine flu epidemic (2009). These fools never get punished, only rewarded for their screw ups because they supposedly add scientific weight to govt propaganda.
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richard
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some good news-
“Carbon trading
Below junk status
Did the European Parliament just kill the the continent’s emissions-trading system?
Business and management
Schumpeter
Apr 16th 2013
BY J.P.
EUROPE’S flagship environmental policy has just been holed below the water line. On April 16th the European Parliament voted by 334 to 315 to reject proposals which (its supporters claimed) were needed to save the emissions-trading system (ETS) from collapse. Carbon prices promptly fell 40% (see chart). Some environmentalists fear that the whole edifice of European climate policy could start to crumble’ https://www.economist.com/schumpeter/2013/04/16/below-junk-status
Monty
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So, despite the cause of the infections and deaths, are the numbers of infections and of deaths significantly higher than usual this season?
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John O'Sullivan
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Monty, We have the latest euroMOMO data (see link above in the article) which shows that for the 24 European nations/regions, deaths are actually LOWER this year, not higher. That is even taking into account the impact of the COVID19 pandemic.
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Finn McCool
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John,
I read on Labcorp’s website that the turnaround time for an Influenza A-B test was 3 – 5 days.
https://www.labcorp.com/tests/186221/influenza-a-and-b-real-time-rt-pcr
An I wrong in suggesting that the turnaround period would increase given the increased demand for these tests? Are testing labs being drowned under the number of tests they have to make?
This test will increase sensitivity and specificity, but are these the tests that are being used?
What does a new case with mild symptoms mean? Are there more ICU beds being used than normal?
I could go on, like Mrs. Doyle. There are just too many unanswered question over basic data given the extreme political measures taken.
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John O'Sullivan
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Finn, good questions. As you say, this pandemic fiasco raises more questions than answers.
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Christian Loosli
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Thanks again, Dr. Wodarg suggest when somany over 80% have mild ore no signs and others get well in relative short time , the virus should not been unkwown to our imunesystem, therefore its just an old fluvirus that is circulating again.
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John O'Sullivan
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Christian, Am currently reading reports of DNA analysis showing that Covid19 has been circulating in human populations for years. Each week that passes the more revelations appear discrediting the mainstream narrative.
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Dev
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Thank you Mr O’Sullivan for your applied rationalle to this distorted media sensationalised b – movie scripted sci-fi reality.
In my online travels (unrestricted as yet) I encountered Dr Andrew Kaufmans analysis of the current implied outbreak and was pleased listen to his steady stream of logic something I hope might be of interest to yourself.
He breaks down the testing procedures in detail and explains logically what he thinks covid-19 really is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2Wq-alAXQY – long version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8Dy5mnYx8&feature=emb_title – short version
His observations slot in with the views that have been expressed here on your site while expanding on some of the details.
Many thanks
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judy
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An excellent article. Thank you. I, as the CD and Editor of PSI in Australia, will make good use of it by emailing it to all the politicians, media, and Health workers I have on my distribution list. If anyone can provide a useful email link, that they think I might not have please reply to this comment. The public letter is a powerful tool. It is a way of gifting evidence to strangers. Not all of them are receptive at first, but over time, as they see the facts they change their mind.
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