Read on Twitter
@DanCrenshawTX @gummibear737 There are a number of things you need to know about CIVID19 that are not talked about a lot that are causing a lot of confusion right now:
1) Young people below 45 without identified pre-existing conditions very rarely have severe disease or die.
1/
1) Young people below 45 without identified pre-existing conditions very rarely have severe disease or die.
1/
2) Many antibody tests also sometimes referred to as AB tests have a significant false positive rate due to reactive antibodies to other coronaviruses. There is controversy using them where the error rate is a meaningful percentage of the infection rate.
2/
2/
Antibodies can also be positive when the disease has passed, for this reason we still do not have a good handle on the number of asymptomatic cases.
3) PCR, polymerase chain reaction, tests also have an issue in that they can find dead virus segments.
3/
3) PCR, polymerase chain reaction, tests also have an issue in that they can find dead virus segments.
3/
They also can find RNA segments existing at very low levels, below the level of infection. As a result, they are not as good of indicators of active disease as we need for asymptomatic patients.
4/
4/
4) If you are trying to conservatively exclude potential asymptomatic patients you have a tremendous potential of being way too conservative. There is still controversy about this but many now believe symptomatic patients only need to be quarantined for 5 days.
5/
5/
And many doubt asymptomatic patients need to be quarantined at all based on viral loading studies, but this is still highly controversial. But it is clear, patients will continue to test positive well after the active viral infection is over. Rational discussion is needed.
/end
/end
