Army lab developing COVID-19 test for people without symptoms, key to ‘normal’ return

[KenH]

“The experimental test is part of a larger project at Fort Detrick to develop methods to identify all individuals who have had COVID-19, which will be the key to returning Americans “back to whatever the new normal is,” Dye said.

“Scientists around the world, including researchers at our institute, are trying to develop the tests that will allow us to determine is someone infected, is someone not infected, to a very sensitive degree,” Dye said.“

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/coronavirus/article241978946.html

 

[church mouse guy]

Why can't we just return people to work and then do the testing at workplaces? I have been working all the way through this and the corporation sent people to their regular medical office staffed by nurses. There have been a lot of people sent home, originally for 14 days if they had a fever. I think that that has been changed by the federal government to allow them to return if the fever is gone. There have been some layoffs in some departments because of shortages of things needed on the production lines. Meanwhile hundreds of people have been working without any tests.

We need to open up retail stores this week. There is no reason for big box stores that have groceries to be open but stores that do not have groceries to be closed.

Already, the public is realizing that about half of restaurants will be going out of business because of this inordinate shut down. In Indiana, for example, they might want to keep Indianapolis closed for another week but they could let the rest of the state go back to normal. This is over with. Am I expected to vote for Gov. Holcomb's re-election in November while he plays Hamlet downtown in the Indiana statehouse and leaves everything shut down over the deaths from the flu in Indiana? Why can't Gov. Holcomb deliver N95 masks to grocery store clerks? Truck drivers have been working through this mess as many hours as they could stay awake and curmudgeons won't even let truck drivers use the washrooms in their cheap outfits. The most vulnerable are the elderly. Let them decide for themselves if they want to go out or not. Who wants to sit around and watch the government print some more inflated paper money and set off a depression?

 

[Scott Downey]

What is interesting here. You could do multiple choices.
1. all positive people for the antigen OR the antibody could go back to work. Those who are negative for both should have to practice safe distancing, hand washing etc... everyone gets to work again. Since many get over it in 2 weeks with few symptoms, why not let them all work.

2. all positive for the antibody go back to work and only them. but that number is not large enough yet perhaps.

3. quarantine all elderly and at risk people, BUT since many americans are fat, have diabetes, heart disease, asthma high blood pressure, you name it we are a sick country, so many are high risk they are likely half the entire population. So how can that work.

4. there are no good choices. Acknowledge people are mortal.

 

[KenH]

Who wants to sit around and watch the government print some more inflated paper money and set off a depression?

I hear ya, man. I hear ya.

 

[KenH]

You could do multiple choices.

The solution is testing, testing, testing. The federal government bungled the testing phase for so long that we still don't have what we need for it. The sheer incompetence by the federal government in this area is gonna require starting to reopen the economy without all of the testing that we need.

 

[church mouse guy]

What is interesting here. You could do multiple choices.
1. all positive people for the antigen OR the antibody could go back to work. Those who are negative for both should have to practice safe distancing, hand washing etc... everyone gets to work again. Since many get over it in 2 weeks with few symptoms, why not let them all work.

2. all positive for the antibody go back to work and only them. but that number is not large enough yet perhaps.

3. quarantine all elderly and at risk people, BUT since many americans are fat, have diabetes, heart disease, asthma high blood pressure, you name it we are a sick country, so many are high risk they are likely half the entire population. So how can that work.

4. there are no good choices. Acknowledge people are mortal.

I'm elderly and still working. My job does not bring me within six feet of others. I have never had any worries about getting sick.

 

[church mouse guy]

The solution is testing, testing, testing. The federal government bungled the testing phase for so long that we still don't have what we need for it. The sheer incompetence by the federal government in this area is gonna require starting to reopen the economy without all of the testing that we need.

Why do we need testing when we kept some things open without any testing? Who is going to pay for the testing?

 

[Scott Downey]

The solution is testing, testing, testing. The federal government bungled the testing phase for so long that we still don't have what we need for it. The sheer incompetence by the federal government in this area is gonna require starting to reopen the economy without all of the testing that we need.

Testing is probably the only thing politicians will accept to let people out of lock downs. There is no need to test the sick and the recovered, either the sick get better or they die, the recovered are not infectious.

 

[church mouse guy]

Testing is probably the only thing politicians will accept to let people out of lock downs. There is no need to test the sick and the recovered, either the sick get better or they die, the recovered are not infectious.

Gov. Eric Holcomb is up for re-election in November so maybe he should start think about what the people will accept. We went along with this shutdown to save lives and to prevent the collapse of the hospitals and medical system. We did not sign up to wait to be tested before we could go back to work. I am sick of Hoosier Republicans. They choke whenever they get the basketball and lose the game every time.

 

[Deacon]

Testing alone is not the solution, it’s only a small part.
Too much is still unknown about this virus.
And there is still a big question about whether those that carry the antibodies can be reinfected.

As for reopening medical facilities or even public businesses and gatherings, the problem is multifactoral;
1. Do you want sick patients waiting together in a crowded waiting room or checkout lines? How will you protect people from each other?
2. How are you going to protect the medical staff, from receptionists and billers to medical assistants, nurses and physicians from the virus?
3. How are you going to insure that your virus exposed staff is not going to pass the virus on to the patients that come to the office?

We cannot accept a 2% death rate casually and return doing things like we always have.
There are still too many unknown questions about this virus to simply say, “let’s just return back to normal”. Normal has left the room, we live in a Covid19 society now.

Rob

 

[church mouse guy]

Testing alone is not the solution, it’s only a small part.
Too much is still unknown about this virus.
And there is still a big question about whether those that carry the antibodies can be reinfected.

As for reopening medical facilities or even public businesses and gatherings, the problem is multifactoral;
1. Do you want sick patients waiting together in a crowded waiting room or checkout lines? How will you protect people from each other?
2. How are you going to protect the medical staff, from receptionists and billers to medical assistants, nurses and physicians from the virus?
3. How are you going to insure that your virus exposed staff is not going to pass the virus on to the patients that come to the office?

We cannot accept a 2% death rate casually and return doing things like we always have.
There are still too many unknown questions about this virus to simply say, “let’s just return back to normal”. Normal has left the room, we live in a Covid19 society now.

Rob

I don't know what we can do. The Chinese lab at Wuhan spliced together HIV, Sars, and an animal flu from bats that is highly contagious. The Sars attacks the respiratory system and the HIV attacks the immune system and hides in the body and the bat disease is in the exhaled air and on surfaces. This was an escaped biological weapon. It is a military defense issue.