Why It’s Essential That We Focus On Testing For “SARS-CoV-2” (COVID-19)
There are two main types of tests for the virus, and they each tell us different things. But one thing that they have in common is that they both give us invaluable information about the virus. Not just whether or not we have an active infection, in the one test; or have had an active, or “silent,” infection previously, in the other test: We can track how it adapts to drugs, and that could give us an opening. We might “find” a cure the same way that we find the infection, by locating higher concentrations of “cured” cases. We might find out why people react to the virus in such a wide variety of ways, with a huge number of patterns of symptoms. We might learn much about human immune systems by putting everything that we have into this broad-spectrum, concerted effort to broaden our knowledge, and create new tools and techniques – and sharpen old ones. Vaccines and cures, even the tests themselves, can be validated.
Serology testing takes a while, so you need to be tested for active infections while, and until, your immune system reacts, and you are done waiting for your test results to confirm it. Every state should have rapid testing for use at home. Everyone should swab test periodically, and report fever and other severe symptoms. You don’t need tatoos to prove that you are clear – how many are you going get? And it’s hard to imagine a better way to transmit. But, to do anything in public, or where there are concentrations of people, you should be required to have at least two consecutive “all-clears.”
Serology testing is moving along at light speed. It will give us all sorts of information, with the ability to validate or invalidate, our efforts thus far in the lab. Most importantly, serology testing will also detect: “silent carriers.” They, more than anything, keep us at home. (Active cases are easier to find, and they are usually at home, or in the hospital.) It’s the silent active case or the undetected case that suddenly turns “serious” that can go into profuse shedding and kill large numbers of people.
We can learn much from the antibodies that our bodies produce naturally, and augment and assist them. This “natural” approach brings into play therapies that use blood plasma, or blood, from “cured” cases to block the disease, at least temporarily.
Of course, you have to know if the child sitting next to your child in class has, or is carrying, the disease. Otherwise, we are just going to keep them home. The same thing at work. We lose everything if we lose our health. We can’t work; our families are fractured; we don’t even know when we will be well again. We sure can’t depend on governments any more than we have to. No one can afford to get infected with this disease: it can destroy your lungs, heart, and liver, or take a limb – and I am convinced that it damages brain tissue. We call it the, “hit in the head” look. Many doctors, on the front lines, check for the “eyes,” as a regular part of triage.
There’s still way too much that is not known about this bug to take any chances. We don’t even know yet why it is “sneaky aggressive” in its spread.
There is a global effort, and there will be breakthroughs. So why on earth would anyone risk their life on a hunch? It’s not just your life, though. The people that you are most likely to harm are those closest to you. What would that prove? Give it some thought.
There’s another dirty trick going on if you want to hear about yet another: quality serology testing is already available in China. Hundreds of thousands of kits have been made available to us, but are being held up by the F.D.A. Another stupid delay, when every delay costs lives.
And, U.S. drug companies are competing with each other, and the C.D.C., to develop their own serology test kits – that, of course, won’t have interchangeable parts, common reagents, or a history of use; but we take what we can get.
There is another critical problem stemming from under testing: the federal government is making it all but impossible to secure tests to determine cause of death. Nothing more directly skews the numbers. Sometimes mistakes are made in haste, and pneumonia deaths are confused or conflated with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). But not testing the deceased is an intentional cover-up. And, I’ll say it once again: it will add to the true death toll, by masking the seriousness of the epidemic.
I’ve attached a couple of links with some really outstanding virus and pandemic info. Knowledge is life!
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