Of Politics and Pandemics
Sudden Pandemic Changes Immediately After Biden Administration
Why the sudden change of heart in Chicago, New York, and the WHO?
It couldn’t possibly have to do with politics. (Right?)
Chicago’s Mayor Lightfoot recently turned on a dime and said Chicago bars and restaurants need to reopen “as quickly as possible.”
Reason? To cut down on private parties where people aren’t taking proper precautions. (Apparently, this wasn’t a problem in 2020.)
NYC Governor Andrew Cuomo is also on board.
After months of hammering New York’s small businesses with fines, shutdowns, and guideline spies, Cuomo now says…
“We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.”
(I, for one, am amazed nobody thought of this months ago.)
And here’s the kicker…
The WHO has just released new guidelines on PCR testing. (And only an hour after Biden was sworn in. Imagine that!)
If implemented, these guidelines will, without changing anything else, dramatically lower case counts virtually overnight.
And just in time to be a boon for Biden.
The WHO’s Great Guideline Reversal
Again, though the new guidelines are dated for the 13th, the WHO waited until one hour after Biden’s inauguration to publicly release them.
In these new guidelines, WHO officials admit that high cycle threshold counts on PCR tests change the tests’ predictive value and could result in false positives. This is especially the case when disease prevalence in the population is low.
(Therefore, high threshold mass-testing of asymptomatic people and counting every positive as a “confirmed case” is probably not the most effective strategy.)
After a year of using PCR tests to diagnose confirmed cases, the WHO now says that a positive test is not by itself an indication of an infection.
Of course, this defies all established testing and reporting protocols up to this point.
To wit, the WHO now believes:
Only a second test, alongside a clinical diagnosis of symptoms, can genuinely make due for a proper “confirmed case.”
(This, by the way, is what the NFL has been doing all along to protect its industry from blanket shutdowns.)
In short, the WHO recommends “manual adjustment of the PCR positivity threshold” because “the cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect the virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load.”
(The lower a threshold is when it flips positive, the more accurately the test evaluates high viral load. The higher the threshold, the more room for error. So, don’t just set it to 45 and let ‘er rip… which is what many labs were doing.)
But, again, the WHO makes clear that a positive test cannot confirm a case in isolation (emphasis mine):
“Most PCR assays are indicated as an aid for diagnosis; therefore, health care providers must consider any result in combination with timing of sampling, specimen type, assay specifics, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contacts, and epidemiological information.”
What action does the WHO suggest IVD (in vitro diagnostic) users take? For one, “Provide the Ct [threshold count] value in the report to the requesting health provider.”
(The same thing many PCR experts have been saying all along.)
Again, if implemented, expect the cases to dwindle.
And just in time, too.
What Changed?
Why the sudden change of heart in Chicago, New York, and the WHO?
It couldn’t possibly have to do with politics. (Right?)
But, as you know…
Even if it was wrong, you’re better off for it.
(Or else.)
Until tomorrow with the hypocrisies of this new administration.
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