The Ministry of Health is looking into reports that 2 European nationals who arrived in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), via Grenada, have tested positive for Covid-19.
Acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shawn Charles, says the 2 individuals were among a party of 5 persons that arrived in Grenada on 15 August 2020, with negative (PCR) test results in their possession, as per Grenada’s entry protocol.
Dr Charles confirmed that the passengers were all swabbed on arrival at the Maurice Bishop International Airport, and placed in a government approved quarantine facility.
“On 18 August, we received their (PCR) results, and these were all negative. They only left quarantine to fly to their onward destination, St Vincent and the Grenadines on 19 August 2020,” explained the CMO.
Dr Charles, who is also an epidemiologist by training, said this could be a possible case of viral shedding, which is not uncommon, since they arrived with negative PCR test results. The results of their follow up PCR tests were also negative, but then showed up as positive when they were tested in St Vincent.
The prominent Grenadian epidemiologist said it is also possible that the visitors who flew directly from Europe to Grenada, might have been incubating a recent infection, and so, it was too early to detect anything, but then later the infection became more apparent resulting in the positive reading in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
GIS
Actually, the PCR test is almost completely worthless. 1. The COVID-19 virus has never been isolated in a lab, so what is the test detecting? It’s detecting genetic fragments from any of 5 or 6 different Coronaviruses which are common in the human population. 2. The test OFTEN gives false positives (possibly because the test swabs are contaminated). 3. The inventor of the PCR test says it’s inadequate and should have never been used the way it is.
So…. This is why nearly every government of the world has suddenly embraced tyranny!? Over a virus less dangerous than the flu and which can’t even be reliably detected.
Dear James S – I’m sorry to say, but you have been the victim of misinformation.
1. The Covid-19 virus has indeed been isolated in the lab. By multiple labs in multiple countries on multiple continents.
2. The PCR test rarely gives false positives – it’s possible that you are confusing this with the so called “rapid tests” which have a much higher false positive rate.
3. Kary Mullis won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing the PCR test process. He absolutely did not say what you claim. In 1996 another scientist, John Lauritsen made a comment in the context of HIV/AIDS that PCR testing is only a qualitative test which does not measure viral load, only the presence of the virus, and is thus constrained. Since we are testing for the presence of the virus, PCR testing is indeed the reference standard for Covid-19 testing.
In terms of how dangerous Covid-19 is, perhaps you should ask the families of the roughly 860,000 people who have died – so far.
You’re certainly entitled to your own opinions, but you don’t get to make up your own facts!!
Dear David,
You probably won’t see this, but here goes anyway…
1. Please provide a link to the peer-reviewed paper showing the “gold standard” complete genetic sequence for COVID-19. I’ll wait………………………………….
2. How many test cycles do you recommend to prevent false positives? Dr. Stephan Bustin discourages more than 35 cycles to avoid false positives, yet various test kit mfr’s recommend between 30 and 45 cycles meaning there is no science based standard.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eci.12801
3. You are certainly correct that Kary Mullis never commented on the use of PCR for COVID-19. He’s been dead for several years.) He was however very upset that the test was used to prove a viral link between HIV and AIDS, because often such a tiny amount viral particles were found in patients with full blown AIDS that he felt the connection was dubious. The same holds true for COVID-19. A positive test has little to do with whether a person gets sick or is capable of making others sick.
As far as asking the families of the deceased; the question should be, “Was your relative suffering from another serious or terminal illness? The CDC now admits that number is 96%, meaning that less than 10,000 in the US have (possibly) died from COVID-19. That kind of uncertainty doesn’t justify killing millions more through economic destruction.
Is it possible that the PCR test that Grenada has came from China, and maybe it is contaminated to gave people the virus. I don’t trust the Chinese. They want our beautiful Island because China is over populated. Africa got wise by kicking them out. I was glad when my flight was cancelled to Grenada because I had a funny feeling about that test. Wake up Grenada.
that’s why we should always use a mask
properly
So if that’s the case and they could have been incubating the disease and therefore tested negative, isn’t it quite possible that many who arrived and had said negative test also be doing the same? Is follow PCR tests been done on them even after they left quarantine, just to be sure they were not in the incubation phase of the viral disease?