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Comment by dakrisht | Hacker News Reader

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dakrisht

> One or two tests can confirm cases for a whole town.

What?

>They simply (and safely) assume that all flu-like illnesses coming from a certain area are covid.

So Influenza A, B are safely assumed to be SARS-Cov2.

Yeah... no.

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If the average number of cases in some small area (e.g. a block or blocks of buildings, a part of town, a town) is e.g. two patients with symptoms X per MONTH, and the symptoms include FEVER and not being able to breath, i.e. something people can't just make up and can be easily measured, and THEN you get a patient from a block of buildings with symptoms X and THEN you test him and get a positive result and THEN you get ten more people from there with symptoms X, AND in the same small are some people have the same symptoms and are in such a bad condition that they need to be connected to the MACHINES and some DIE, you can be very sure it's a virus which never existed among the humans before generating these symptoms.

Otherwise, it would have to be some OTHER virus not known to humanity appearing at the same time, behaving unlike the viruses we know and watch every year, magically appearing exactly in the community where you verified the existence of the one for which you test.

You can rapid-test for flu. If it's an ILI and tests negative for flu, it's probably COVID at this point.

Ok sure. Still inaccurate to assume it’s SARS-Cov2.

This is not a game of assumptions.

Furthermore, Italy tested over 200,000 samples in a little less than 14 days? Don’t think so.

Numbers aren’t making sense. At all.

It very much is. When you are limited in every way you have make some cuts. This is just the cut that says that it is probably covid if it is not flu and they are from an area with test confirmed cases. And in by far most cases it is going to be correct. Probably as correct as the current test for covid.

So 200,000+ people under mandatory lockdown went to a clinic (not a drive through test, a physical clinic), lined up and waited to get tested for Influenza which was assumed to be SARS-Cov2?

Or maybe Italy tested 200,000+ samples with RT-PCR technology with machines and labs and tests / swabs they don’t have?

Not trying at all to spin conspiracy theories here but these numbers simply do not add up.

As a corollary: there are a myriad of infections that can present as fever and cough: rhinoviruses, influenza, bronchial infections, gastroenteritis, auto immune flare ups, sinusitis and season allergies, the list goes on.

We are all speculating btw.

They can just test for Covid-19 antibodies. It's not really reliable, but it is much faster than the genetic tests and should quickly discriminate between Covid and the common flu.

Italians are triaging, so they have to quickly sort the cases. They have to sacrifice precision and allow for some false positives.

This is very much a game of assumptions and a game of cutting corners at this point. It's wartime. The hospitals near me are literally using pieces of cotton, cut shirts, hand-sewn layers, instead of regulation-required certified N95 masks.

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