Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Covid-19 Testing-- Help me out here!

Look, I've been willing to play along with this whole gag for quite a while now. Both KYHillChick and I are what you'd call high-risk. I've got a mother stuffed in an assisted living facility that I haven't seen since March. So far, I've been happy to play along and treat COVID-19 like it is a clear and present danger.

However, why all the hoo-haw over testing? From the very beginning, the COVID mavens have been all over testing.

There's not enough test kits
We need more tests
We need to be testing people
Testing is essential
We'll all die if we don't have testing
We need drive-thru testing
We need everyone tested
(blah, blah. . . blah.)

But why? Why is testing so freaking important? We've known from early on that a lot of folks never present symptoms. We've known from the beginning that most people that get it and have symptoms are over and done with it without serious trouble. It's only the folks that get serious symptoms that really need attention. You've got a fever? Trouble Breathing? Non-productive cough? Yep, you probably have it.

From the get-go, some folks have treated testing as if it is somehow the key to all this and it ain't. If I get tested tomorrow and I come back negative, that means nothing about what is going to happen to me next week. If I do test positive, what do I do? Stay home and stay away from people. Hell! That's what I've been doing since mid-March anyway.

Let's just say I don't have a family around me. Let's say I'm 45 and not 62. I get the disease. Am I going to be walled off alive? No. Am I going to be stuffed in an oven alive? No ( at least not if I'm living in China) . No, I'm going to be allowed to go out and go shopping at the drug store and the grocery. I've got to be able to eat. I've got to be able to get to the pharmacy. What the hell difference does testing make?

Let's put me back to 62. I get sick. I present symptoms. The symptoms are bad enough that I get sent to the hospital. Now what? Does testing me make me better? If I test negative and still have the symptoms, are they going to throw me out of the hospital? If I test positive, is that going to mean I get special treatment? They're still treating symptoms here with some new anti-Covid measures thrown in like HCQ and Zinc and stuff like that. Does a positive test change the course of treatment? Probably not. As long as I've got symptoms associated with COVID-19, I'll get the same treatment, negative or positive.

Let's say I have no symptoms. What does testing do for me? Does it get me back to work quicker? Do I get a prize? Does it mean I'll never get COVID-19?

So what's the big deal about testing?
Why does Trump get beat up about lack of tests?
Why does the media keep harping on testing?
Why is testing "the key to everything?"

Please, someone, explain this to me.

Because there are 330 million people in the U.S., and the MSM knows we can't test everyone. At first it was not enough Ventilators, and when the administration took care of that, they switched to overcrowded hospitals which never transpired. Now it's testing, because they know not everyone in the country will be tested, and they can harp on that day after day.

It keeps the average lemming's head planted deep in his azz and unable to think for himself.

I was really kind of hoping someone would disagree with me.

I know there are several people on here that hate Trump and think the US has really screwed up on this whole Corona virus thing from the get-go. Since testing is one of the big lightning rod talking points, I was kind of hoping somebody would fill me in.

Testing is the key to all this. Okay, why?

Why should I be worried about being tested?
Why should I be worried about not being tested?

If I'm tested, then what?

Here in KY, one of the criteria for the "re-opening" was decreasing number of positive Covid tests. This was decreed at the same time that KY dramatically increased the number of drive thru test locations and relaxed the criteria for asymptomatic people to be tested. In other words,"The number of cases has to decrease to re-open the state", however, "We are going to do everything in our power to find more infected people". Disingenuous at best. But, it is what it is. Fortunately, the seasonality component has kicked in. The number of new Covid cases continues to drop rapidly, in spite of the State's best efforts to find new infections.

From a personal stand point, I have had a persistent dry, no-productive, cough since I left the hospital in mid-March. Nothing major. But will not go away. Doing the drive thru Covid testing last was week (negative) was for me confirmation that the cough was not Covid, and probably indicative that I have moved into a mild form of asthma since my hospitalization.

Me pursuing the antibody test for prior infection is simply a matter of determining if I had Covid during my illness back during the first of the year. Will not change much of how I conduct activities of daily living. However, I am hopeful that the antibody testing will show positive to indicate some possible level of immunity from re-infection.

If you test positive you quarantine so you don't spread it. I don't think you test positive by nasal swap if you've had it and got over it. No one knows yet if you have immunity if you have had it already, even if you have antibodies (detected by blood test I believe). Could mutate anyway.

The blood test provides statistics of who's had it if little else.

The swab test isn't entirely reliable because the virus is prevalent at the end of respiratory system ie the lungs, not so much in the nasal cavity.

[quote=Orion2000
Doing the drive thru Covid testing last was week (negative) was for me confirmation that the cough was not Covid, and probably indicative that I have moved into a mild form of asthma since my hospitalization.

[quote]


The RT-QPCR COVID test has a fairly high false negative rate, mostly due to its sensitivity ( or more precisely its lack of it). The test can tell you that you have the virus, but cannot definitively tell you that you are clear.

Knowledge is power.

There is a reason the White House is testing everyone on a daily basis.

My understanding, there are three major categories of tests for Covid. All three have their strong points and challenges. Not sure what category of test the KY Health Dept is using, other than it is a nasal swab. I've done the best I can do with the resources available to me at the moment. Time to move on...

The testing should show a lesser R0 number which would lessen restrictions. They dont seem to want that outcome. Look at the jails that show almost everyone being asymptomatic and no hospitalizations but all positive.

It is allergy season so the coughs and sneezes will increase. I find that the purple bottle of fabric softener makes wife and I both worse. Changed to spring flowers. And my celiac means if I get into gluten my heart races, chest gets tight, joints ache, and headache.

Colorado is waiting for the big surge; but few were following the guidelines before so the surge should have already come. The yoyo at the burger place was wearing visibly well used gloves. The grocery carts have crud in the bottom and when I wiped under the handle the towel came off brown.
2 or more strains of c19, 3 or more tests make for garbage data

There are a couple of ways to collect the sample, basically different nasal swabs but all the tests are RT-QPCR tests which are variants of the basic CDC test found here.

https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download


The collections may be more of less effective at recovering virus, but the test that follows has a limit of sensitivity. This is what the guidelines say about the results.

•Negative results do not preclude 2019-nCoV infection and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or other patient management decisions. Optimum specimen types and timing for peak viral levels during infections caused by 2019-nCoV have not been determined. Collection of multiple specimens (types and time points) from the same patient may be necessary to detect the virus.
•A false negative result may occur if a specimen is improperly collected, transported or handled. False negative results may also occur if amplification inhibitors are present in the specimen or if inadequate numbers of organisms are present in the specimen.

The more testing , the more positive results they will find. This number goes into the “cases” count. Then the MSM can gaggle on about all the damn cases.

Positives for Covid19 of a few days ago over the seven county 'Green River District' here in KY.
Interestingly, the age ranges with the highest numbers of positives don't jive with the "Experts" predictions:

(they've since quit posting these specific stats for some reason...?)


Average age: 44
Age range: 7 months old – 93
Male: 54.9%
Female: 45.1%

GRDHD COVID-19 Cases by Age Group:

< 1: 1
1-11: 6
12-19: 17
20-29: 81
30-39: 98
40-49: 98
50-59: 75
60-69: 49
70-79: 19
80+: 17
Total: 461



Daughter is a RN at a VA clinic. She said at the clinic where she works they test for other things like flu, strep, etc., first. If anyone shows positive for anything else no Covid test is done and they are sent home (not possible to have flu, strep, etc., AND Covid19 ...???). If they test negative for the above but have Covid symptoms they are required to refer patient to local state health department for Covid testing.

Aren't those numbers more representative of the population age breakdown? Anyone can get COVID but not all are affected by it - those with the worst reactions are in the older age groups.

Of those that die from it 48% are in the 75+ age group, 23% are in the 45-64 age group and 25% in the 65-74 age group.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

USPS has been affected by Union slug virus for years.

Swab test is worthless, unless you wanna do it every day.

Just props up .gov shutdowns.

The only useful test, is the antibody (blood) test.

That tells ya if you've already had it.