What does a positive test mean?

[RiverRat1]

If you could go back in time and have zero media on COVID I bet 99% of us would still not even know it existed.

If one where to only watch TV from a remote island you'd swear everyone knows plenty of people who died and are dying from COVID.

This is the biggest bullcrud crap I've ever seen pushed.

[SabreKiller]

I've heard that that positive antibody tests are being counted in the "confirmed" category and also heard that they aren't.

There's so much hearsay out there its hard to know whats true any more.

Does anyone know if the antibody positives are/aren't being counted in the "confirmed" category?

Positive antibody tests are not being included in the count for total cases or active cases.

[meltingfeather]

The antibody test is a blood drawn test. Which is different from the swab test to check for current infection. Is that correct?

correct

Is antibody testing considered more or less accurate than a PCR test?

They test for different things. A comparison of accuracy is not really meaningful.


I think people generally believe what they want to believe-- and interpret or twist the facts to fit their narrative.
All the conspiracy talk about over reported cases and miscounts and all that fits neatly in that box.
If you look just at death rates, they are up significantly this year over normal-- in an amount that roughly corresponds to the number of COVID-attributed deaths. It suggests, in fact, that COVID-attributions may be slightly low, since they don't account for all the excess deaths over the normal rate that are happening right now.

[LWC]

correct

They test for different things. A comparison of accuracy is not really meaningful.


I think people generally believe what they want to believe-- and interpret or twist the facts to fit their narrative.
All the conspiracy talk about over reported cases and miscounts and all that fits neatly in that box.
If you look just at death rates, they are up significantly this year over normal-- in an amount that roughly corresponds to the number of COVID-attributed deaths. It suggests, in fact, that COVID-attributions may be slightly low, since they don't account for all the excess deaths over the normal rate that are happening right now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/investigations/coronavirus-excess-deaths-heart/

Then again, how many deaths were caused by the shutdown? NYC had 50 extra deaths a day due to non-Covid heart disease from people not going in when they needed to.

[John Paul]

Not to argue..

Positive antibody tests are not being included in the count for total cases or active cases.

https://www.livescience.com/cdc-combined-covid-19-diagnostic-and-antibody-tests.html

[wes122984]

correct



They test for different things. A comparison of accuracy is not really meaningful.





I think people generally believe what they want to believe-- and interpret or twist the facts to fit their narrative.

All the conspiracy talk about over reported cases and miscounts and all that fits neatly in that box.

If you look just at death rates, they are up significantly this year over normal-- in an amount that roughly corresponds to the number of COVID-attributed deaths. It suggests, in fact, that COVID-attributions may be slightly low, since they don't account for all the excess deaths over the normal rate that are happening right now.

Are they really though?


Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

[JES]

Is antibody testing considered more or less accurate than a PCR test?

Less, but they are different.

PCR test tells you if you have a current infection.

Anti-body test can’t confirm a current infection, just that you have had an infection, and there are a lot of false positives from that test. As I understand it, don’t take this for gospel.

[Bassdeer]

Just saw a report on Florida that testing results are a mess, Not reporting negative results,
Orlando Health confirmed errors in the report, and its positivity rate is said to be 9.4 percent, not 98 percent as listed.

Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s positivity rate is actually 6 percent, not 76 percent

https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-update-florida-labs-not-reporting-negative-test-results-report

[TXJIM]

Is antibody testing considered more or less accurate than a PCR test?

Totally different test, looking for different things. The PCR test is looking for the viral antigens (DNA specific to live and active Covid virus). It will tell you if you have an active infection. The test is highly specific meaning if you test positive you can pretty much count on the fact that you have an active Covid infection, regardless if you have symptoms or not. However, a negative test is less conclusive. A negative test could mean:

A. You don't have an infection
B. The nurse did a poor job of collecting the sample.
C. You are too early in the infection to have a sufficient viral load to collect.

An antibody test is looking for antibodies, these are produced by your body and are evidence that you fought the virus. There are two types of antibodies, one develops quickly (within a few days of being infected) and the other develops later and stays in your system longer. With a negative antibody test you could have a current infection and no antibodies yet. There is also some new information that Rubella antibodies are very similar to Covid antibodies and may fight off Covid causing your immune system to not develop Covid antibodies.

A positive antibody test means you most likely have had it and should have some immunity for a yet to be defined period. Prevailing thoughts are that both types of Covid antibodies eventually clear out of your system potentially allowing future reinfections.

[meltingfeather]

What does a positive test mean?

Are they really though?


Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

Yes they are.
The 10k from last year includes pneumonia, or does that not support your point of view so you ignored or didn’t mention it?
Excess deaths in Texas are estimated at 2k-5k total for this year. That's above the normal death rate, which includes pneumonia and the annual flu and includes a buffer or "threshold" to allow for variance, which actually is pretty low.

[LWC]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAu2eC6_qws"]Dr. Scott Atlas Disputes COVID-19 Fear Mongering Tactics From Our Health Officials - YouTube[/ame]

[meltingfeather]

There's so much hearsay out there its hard to know whats true any more.

Ain’t that the truth— it’s frustrating. Seems like every bit of news these days gets a political spin.

[meltingfeather]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...-deaths-heart/

Then again, how many deaths were caused by the shutdown? NYC had 50 extra deaths a day due to non-Covid heart disease from people not going in when they needed to.

COVID attributions don’t account for all the excess, which makes sense with that story.
No idea what all the costs of shut down were, or what would have happened had we not shut down.

[SabreKiller]

https://www.livescience.com/cdc-comb...ody-tests.html

CDC may be doing that, but DSHS isn't doing it. Region 8 gives me the possible case numbers as well, but they aren't reported to DSHS central.

[Take Dead Aim]

This whole thing will be egg on Trump's face. While I support him he and has people have done a horrible job of controlling this virus. They have never set parameters on test and results. Allowing whoever to test and report positives. He allowed the test makers to "self regulate" themselves. He created incentives for the hospitals to report deaths at Covid versus the real cause. I unfortunately think we are too far down the road to crazy town to turn around and gather the info correctly. There is blame to go around be he is my President, I voted for him but feel he let us down regarding this fiasco.