Breaking—not only is Hope Hicks #COVID19 positive, but it was known Wednesday night, and she TRAVELED on Air Force 1 Wednesday night. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/us/elections/hope-hicks-coronavirus.html

2) As an epidemiologist, I have so many questions:

Did she test positive before, during, or after the flight?

If before, why did they let her aboard?

If during the flight, where and how was she isolated?

Who were close on the AF1 flight?

Who is now quarantining?

3) Hicks was also no mask riding with Miller and Miller day before. https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1311824558580621313

4) More questions:

Did she show symptoms?

If so, how long? If not, what prompted the test?

What kind of test was it?

Was the test confirmed?

If PCR test, what was the Ct value? Above or below 30?

5) The “Ct” value is the cycle threshold of a PCR—it means how many amplification cycles the lab had to run to get the virus amplified. The lower the value the higher the viral load, which <30 means likely she was infectious. If it’s above 35 or 40, it might be too small dose.

6) What is high/medium/low? Patients should learn about these data besides just YES/NO positive COVID.

High viral load = CT value <25

medium viral load = CT value 25-30

low viral load = CT value>30

7) also, in this earlier study lower VIRAL LOAD (higher Ct value at hospital admission => lower DEATH RISK. But viral load also means transmission potential.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1535610820304815

8) To be clear, “People with higher viral loads may also shed more whole viruses, which makes them more contagious, compounding the danger of spreading disease more widely.” https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/14/how-much-of-the-coronavirus-does-it-take-to-make-you-sick/