bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Sad but true! bwa

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

assuming you are responding to my post since you didn't identify what you are responding to ...

Are you willing to base your safety on what I was exposed to only prior to the testing ? Or are you suggesting every single person should be tested hourly ? every minute ? every second ? Talk about disconnected from the real world. Most 'scientists' do not have access to the number of tests administered or the results of those tests. That is why the media quotes 'scientists' and lets people think an opinion from them is more valuable than people who actually know. Its their belief that they are describing the situation accurately but are unable to support their words. Saw an 'expert' and a 'scientist' quoted in the media about what needs to be done. The expert was a psychiatrist and the scientist a cancer researcher. Neither had any viral or epidemiology research or background - but they were 'experts' as identified by the media.

I am directly connected to an individual who is part of the group which developed what is believed to be (and tests have shown to be) a workable vaccine at UPMC. THAT is what is needed. Quit worshiping at the feet of the media and find out facts. If you did, you would find that most of what is being reported by the media is grossly inaccurate and supposition. For you to even remotely suggest that testing will do anything to stop the transmission of the virus is ridiculous and worse, promotes more false narratives that sell more fearmongering media.

Do you know what the treatment course is for those positively identified with the Corona virus ? They are told to go home and call the hospital if they have trouble breathing. UPMC has pioneered a telehealth initiative which closely monitors this patient group but can do nothing for them until they hit a crisis. How will testing everybody change that ? There are people who have tested positive who still don't isolate because they don't feel that bad - how is testing going to stop that ?

Look to the CDC and Johns Hopkins for the information and you will find what is reported are half truths and inconsistent with actual data.

Admit it - you are a media person just trying to cause people to believe something rather than giving factual information aren't you ???? Or maybe you are just another person who has been trained by the media to start yelling and complaining if they hear the name Trump used even if they didn't hear or understand the context.

Rusty69 Loc: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2020/03/09/upmc-works-toward-its-own-covid-19-test-but-thats.html

...test have shown to be ????? On mice?????? Come on fellow let's all take a deep breath and drop the politics.

GeorgeFenwick

Interesting that we have so many angry virology experts here on UHH!

I think we are largely past the value of testing for presence/absence of Covid-19. The more important test at this point is to determine presence of antibodies which indicate whether or not a person’s immune system is successfully fighting the disease and is thus conferred immunity. These people could travel about with little fear of either contracting or infecting others. You may have read accounts that the government could issue a sort of passport for these people.

This fighting on a photo web site, it seems to me, is really just a thin veneer beneath which is the ceaseless national political battle. Otherwise, why the anger? My suggestion is that we drop this ugliness and get back to photography. You?

Oh, and if interested, my Ph.D. Is from the Johns Hopkins Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease.

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Again, I am NOT saying testing wouldn't help to get things identified and make people feel safer (key word FEEL). Let me ask you what you are going to do when you test every single person in the US ? What then ? Oh, yeah - nothing ! Should we ship them off to a place we don't like ? Maybe colonize the moon ? Maybe permanently mark them so everyone would know to avoid them ?

And why not then do the same with an even MORE deadly virus year after year ? Should we test for influenza ? At least that has a course of treatment and also a somewhat effective vaccine. Oh but then the Californians will rail against getting the vaccine because they saw somewhere that it causes autism.

Too many have jumped on the media train that claims testing is the answer. Its not. Testing is useful but unless you can completely separate the infected from the uninfected all it will do is help to identify people who may need help sooner than when they present at the ER.

It is still not known if or how long the virus is viable on surfaces. So do we throw out any packaged food made before the 100% testing level is reached ? What about the machinery that is used in other industry ? Those are the answers we need to identify and drop the silly argument about testing. It would help, but its not the answer.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I'm not really sure what you are proposing. Drop all testing because it's futile?

Sure you can contract the virus immediately after being tested. That doesn't render the test useless.
The test can give some indication of the density of infected individuals in an area. That will influence lockdown/loosen recommendations.
How are we going to open the economy without knowing who can safely come in contact with the public?

I agree that the final answer is to develop a vaccine. But that will take a long time. Much longer than the time scale proposed for reopening the economy. And there's too much unknown about the virus. Will a vaccine work for everyone? Are there side effects? Is there variability due to genetics?

There are suggestions that some people who recovered from the virus and passed testing, are now showing new signs of infections. It's been suggested that the virus has "reactivated" rather than "reinfected" those people. Will a vaccine take care of that problem?

There's a lot of research to be done before we can consider ourselves to be in the clear.

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

No politics here. Media on both left and right are to blame. Fear mongering is always good for media income. The FDA requires the testing paths and historically the ability to predict human outcomes from initial small mammal testing has a very good track record. The UPMC group is currently advancing testing to the next phase on larger animals **as required** by the FDA. Look up the requirements for FDA approval if you doubt that. If not tested on mice as the first step, how do you suggest it be tested ? Would you ascent to being the only human to get introduced to the possible vaccine ? Knowing that it could have deleterious effects including death ?

Using historical data - things look very promising and antibody production are being observed in every stage of testing so far. The concern is now beginning to shift (at least in some of the UPMC researchers) to if mutations can/will occur - similar to the strains of influenza.

aggiedad Loc: Corona, ca

Does anyone know how many deaths were suffered in the winter of 1968 due to the "Hong Kong" flu ?

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

With that I agree. And that is why I say testing is helpful. but it is not a panacea. The vitriol of many in and outside of the media is that testing is why we find ourselves in the position we are in (and the evil orange man is to blame). Like the guy or not, logistically it is impossible to ramp up from 0 to millions of tests per day quickly. But you don't hear about that. The FDA determines how and who would be tested, not the president. The discussion of 'what after testing' is also ignored as evidenced in this very forum. Blame the orange man and direct your ire toward him !! Only a few arguments I have read here even begin to talk about a workable plan. And fewer still have any understanding of the logistics involved to execute those plans. But as long as some folks have a target for their irrational complaining, the media is satisfied.

The right and left leaning media promotes anger over action and so people use testing as a rallying point without any basis in fact or understanding of the big picture. This is not just a left wing/right wing thing. It is the manner in which all US media reacts to ANY information. Don't just give the facts. Tell everyone why you think its bad and then crucify the latest target ...

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

from the CDC:

The 1968 pandemic was caused by an influenza A (H3N2) virus comprised of two genes from an avian influenza A virus, including a new H3 hemagglutinin, but also contained the N2 neuraminidase from the 1957 H2N2 virus. It was first noted in the United States in September 1968. The estimated number of deaths was 1 million worldwide and about 100,000 in the United States. Most excess deaths were in people 65 years and older. The H3N2 virus continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza A virus. Seasonal H3N2 viruses, which are associated with severe illness in older people, undergo regular antigenic drift.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1968-pandemic.html

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

and one student who is a 'carrier' can give the virus to another student who becomes another 'carrier' who takes it home to her/his grandparents who were living with her/his parents until they suddenly now find that the ICU has become their new home.

michaelsinger

Dear PG...yes I am speaking to you. No serious scientist is opposed to testing. It is needed to find out how widespread this disease is among other things. Did I read it right that you know of a"workable vaccine..." That's quite a discovery! Why isn't it being produced? Then we can all get this vaccine and return to the world you seem to pine for. I am not a slave to the media. I am a slave to a FREE PRESS. No doubt some information they publish or broadcast is wrong and some is sensational BUT without the free press we'd all be lost, even a genius like you. Michael Singer

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Right now, I don't know of a more deadly modern virus here; in my state, in three months we already have lost three times as many people to this virus than we lost in six months to the flu this season. Yes, sometimes the flu has had a higher 'estimated' death toll after the six month flu season has ended, but we don't have any 'estimated' total of those who were not counted this virus.

The purpose of testing is not to identify those who are not infected, but to get back to putting those who are infected under quarantine; right now, the guy slinging hash at the local diner and then purchasing perfume for his girlfriend could be infected and we would never know. Hopefully we will eventually have some kind of vaccine. Then those who want protection have a chance of getting it - those of all stripes who don't want it are on their own. Right now I do not have a choice other than hiding out myself; my daughter, who works in retail, has no way of protecting her fiance {who has just one working lung and is very vulnerable}.

PGHphoto Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I never considered myself a genius but obviously you are a good assessor of intelligence. The vaccine is currently undergoing testing as required by the FDA and shows positive results. UPMC is not the only institution that has a potential vaccine in testing right now - just the one I am closest to because I work there and have a personal friend that is on the research team that developed it.

Its a rather interesting alternate approach in that it does not use a traditional needle subcutaneous or IM method to introduce the antibody trigger.

A free press is not what we have in the US at this time. You confuse a 'free press' with the income oriented free market manner in which the US media lives. A free press reports the facts, not how the felon's next door neighbor (who never really met the felon) thought about how shiny the felon kept his car. A free press does not manipulate the population to generate fear and a cultivate a desire in the populace for more information just so ratings and subsequent income can be maintained and increased.

I never suggested any 'scientist' was opposed to testing.Only that when so-called 'experts' make comments about how its somebody's fault or what 'needs to be done' instead of presenting the reality of what widespread testing entails - along with its cost and logistical hurdles - the 'experts' are serving nobody but themselves and their media handlers. But then your precious free press should be reporting those important details shouldn't they ?

BTW - using the quote reply button would actually identify who you are responding to ...

custodian Loc: New York

Why dont the politicians and businesses learn a lesson from this and make our stuff in the good ol USA! Look what china has done to us!! Its called germ warfare and yet we will still rely on them. Who are the dumb ones