@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle The issues on tests; sloppy language often misconstrues their use and value. Data, all data, is good. Misuse and misunderstanding can be very bad.
First, this curve:
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle The disease has two distinct phases with serious disease, this is well known, now. What is less understood is whether there are meaningful long term issues, we do not have objective long term data yet.
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle Without getting into specifics I wish we could be more accurate in the debate. PCR tests detect virus RNA as they cycle multiple times to amplify the amount of viral genetic material so that we can detect it.
1) over cycling gets sensitive enough that it can find dead virus material and trace contaminants. 2) there are procedural techniques that can avoid errors but they are not uniform.
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle The words “false positive” are used but this is offensive to many. The correct positioning is that an over cycled test does not necessarily indicate active infection and does indicate past infection. There are always small errors in sensitivity and selectivity, too.
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle Small errors are important in that they overstate infection rates where the epidemic has declined. But the the discussion gap is sloppy distinction between active cases and cases no longer contagious. This is further complicated by symptoms being somewhat ambiguous in transition.
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle The same distinction applies to anti-body tests but there is an added issue in that both PCR and AB test positive indications start to decline as time passes.
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle So if the case was not diagnosed early, these tests can yield a true indication of current infection but a false indication of past infection. We have to be careful how we are using tests, and many of us are sloppy in the use of the words “false positive” and “false negative”.
@C1aranMurray@LaurenceBettle Some practitioners and almost all politicians and the press are confused by this discussion. We collectively need to be more precise.
@RWMaloneMD It was said yesterday in your spaces meeting that this is much bigger than just COVID19. In fact it is. The paranoid launch of an overt surveillance state started with the fear of 9/11. It was advanced by the CIA, NSA, FBI and new DHS. 1/ @LynnFynn3@KLVeritas@BrendanEich
@RWMaloneMD@LynnFynn3@KLVeritas@BrendanEich Pattern is simple, fear lowers defenses, then political, military, energy, investment banking, big tech and Pharma industrial complexes kick into high gear to steal from the people. Craven politicians orchestrate economic feedback loops to get their share. It is getting worse.
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@RWMaloneMD@LynnFynn3@KLVeritas@BrendanEich We let our guard down for a few months and they erode our rights and steal trillions. (Used to be millions then billions, this should be informative) The entire system has been compromised including the press and big-tech which the NSA and CIA actively recruit.
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The bad actors slowly chip away at freedom, in our case one dramatic event after another. The guaranteed privacy of IRS filings was used to justify forcing you to fill them out. Now they are often exposed for purposes other than tax collection and used politically.
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9/11 ended anonymous travel and the fight against terrorism has slowly eroded almost any right to financial privacy. As the enemies of freedom do their work they get their nose under the tent in one area and suddenly you have a camel standing next to you.
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FISA abuses, IRS over-reach, financial deplatforming, limitations on entry and exit from the country have all arisen from things done ostensibly to protect the people but it will expand inexorably; sucking freedom and liberty out of our country until we stop it.
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We are living in increasingly chaotic lawless times, but we are often insular and unidimensional in our thinking, this limits our awareness of what is really happening. Piqued?
Lawless behavior, when celebrated or allowed, encourages corruption and undermines freedom. As the process accelerates things face us daily that create anxiety. But the truth is, many events that distress us are symptomatic of much deeper rot. 2/ @MarkChangizi@EduEngineer
Cultural and social decoherence ensue, criminality increases, arbitrary justice replaces the rule of law, and winning over-rules right and wrong. Literally thousands of examples exist but I will focus on a few. We are on a big slide accelerating downward. 3/ @BillGertz@ooana
Let’s celebrate the pageantry of the Winter Olympics in Beijing and on a fake ski slope in the dusty mountains nearby. Again we look away from the stark reality of China. Do the people not understand the depravity, do they not care, or have they sold their soul for profits?
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The Uyghur raped by the CCP advisor in her house while her husband is in the concentration camp, the young boy that spits on a police officer and is beaten to death, the trafficked teenagers giving massages and happy endings, or the prisoner about to be executed for parts.
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@NickHudsonCT An interesting dilemma; emergencies require action without complete data. At first, caution is warranted and mistakes are almost always made, the aim is to save lives, but then an arrogant authoritarian approach set in. Inductive and deductive logic both disappeared.
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@NickHudsonCT One of the ways you contain risk is to have detailed plans of how to react to the emergency. In this case, we threw all the plans away, this was the first signal we were off the rails. Then, medicine and treatment itself became politicized. Vaccines were the favorite son.
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@NickHudsonCT The bureaucrats directed tens of billions to developing vaccines despite the history of being unable to find a durable and safe vaccine for this type of fast mutating virus. Still, all in all, the development was worth a shot(bad pun, I know). But the subterfuge started.
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