COVID-19 in Trinidad & Tobago (Local Updates & Discussions Only)

[redmanjp]

that data on asymptomatic positive cases shows MOH is wrong about the need to have symptoms to get a positive test- it is not just possible but highly probable.

this is why we should have expanded testing- if we have asymptomatic essential workers or grocery shoppers going out despite the lockdown we still could have a problem- yes the spread would be low due to the lockdown but what happens when we open up again- surge in cases due to these undetected cases?

so how about we test all essential workers- isolate all positive ones regardless of symptoms?

[The_Honourable]

498 pneumonia, respiratory
deaths in four months

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/498-pneu ... dd4411ed8f

Unless Bassant can get figures for the same period for 2018 and 2019, it comes across that he's grasping at straws. Since other medical experts didn't want to chime in, more problems.

Pnmites in their comments already saying that the article is all about attacking carnival perceived as a "black man" celebration that unc, 1%, religious heads, etc hate and want to shut down.

That being said, the article does have merit. With new info coming out that covid break out of China since November and maybe even earlier, there is a high chance that persons died of covid or covid-related that doctors didn't consider at the time because it was not declared a pandemic by WHO until march and the focus was still on the Eastern world. Evidence starting to come out that the move of the virus from East to West with its mutations was much earlier than previously thought.

If we ramp up antibody testing, we would know the population percentage that built up immunity which can give more guidance on if we had it already pre-March or not. Remember we still can't get an answer on the first covid victim who here in T&T since early February.

[paid_influencer]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

[redmanjp]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

obviously MOH eh know what dey talking bout

[redmanjp]

https://web.archive.org/web/20200214144447/https:/www.researchgate.net/publication/339070128_The_possible_origins_of_2019-nCoV_coronavirus

[Gladiator]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

Boy... they hit the public with so much bullsheit during the past 6 weeks it not even funny anymore.

[ST Auto]

U are an idiot

Amazing how the tuner arm chair experts have been wrong for the 10000th time yet again

They know nothing when compared to the EXPERTS.

I remember I was laughed out of town when I said we have flattened the curve and we are in the clear, now other bodies around the world are congratulating us on a job well done.

Allyuh should go on allyuh knees and thank Lord Rowley for saving allyuh life and the country.

Meanwhile Kamla and Coonilal drinking rum while suggesting that people should riot until the government reopen the country. The problem is NOT the UNC the Problem is Kamla and Coonilal along with Gopeesingh and the rest of the Cabal

[MaxPower]

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

It have people like Dunce Dr. Mild Trotman employed.

What you expect bro.

These people got positions by connections and yet still they refuse to study their work properly and do some research.

[sMASH]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

Boy... they hit the public with so much bullsheit during the past 6 weeks it not even funny anymore.

the context the MoH was referring to was on the onset of the infection, before the body was able to mount a measurable reaction. so u look okay, test okay, and a few days later then u would develop a measurable response.
u ask them bout 'x' and they ramble on bout 'y' and ramble ramble ramble brow beat. by the time they done talk u just eh feel to press the question. thats why UK and US reporters cut them of during their response before all the BS get to fall out.

they ask bout asymptomatic and he talk about testing too early. making the false equivalency


me, i jess waiting on this ting to done to go for a doubles. and and next up, election.

[Redress10]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

When you have limited resources then you have to be smart with your resources. In order to make the chances of you catching a covid positive person then you test when that person has symptoms. That way the interpretation of the tests are improved. What we are basically doing is field type testing.

Think about it like this. You are in subsaharan africa, we have limited resources and you are trying to understand a disease. So what you will do is use rapid type testing on persons appearing with symptoms. Anyone without symptoms will be ignored because a negative test from that person will be meaningless. Remember, you are looking for positive cases and you are trying to discover these cases in shortest time possible. So if people are experiencing "symptoms" and not testing positive then "chances" are the ones without symptoms are not infected as well.

Also remember there are different types of tests that have different specificities and strengths etc.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest

[Blaze d Chalice]

Better prepare ollor anguses.

Some new cases were allegedly detected.

I don't want to say the exact number but it is allegedly less than 5.
But don't take my word for it.
Wait for official sources, but still prepare angus.

[Gladiator]

Better prepare ollor anguses.

Some new cases were allegedly detected.

I don't want to say the exact number but it is allegedly less than 5.
But don't take my word for it.
Wait for official sources, but still prepare angus.

Forrrk you Blaze..... i fed up home dred.........Tell me yuh bullsheiting nah....

[redmanjp]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

When you have limited resources then you have to be smart with your resources. In order to make the chances of you catching a covid positive person then you test when that person has symptoms. That way the interpretation of the tests are improved. What we are basically doing is field type testing.

Think about it like this. You are in subsaharan africa, we have limited resources and you are trying to understand a disease. So what you will do is use rapid type testing on persons appearing with symptoms. Anyone without symptoms will be ignored because a negative test from that person will be meaningless. Remember, you are looking for positive cases and you are trying to discover these cases in shortest time possible. So if people are experiencing "symptoms" and not testing positive then "chances" are the ones without symptoms are not infected as well.

Also remember there are different types of tests that have different specificities and strengths etc.

then be honest with ppl- say we have limited testing so the criteria is strict- doh lie and say d viral load not high enough unless u have symptoms

[Blaze d Chalice]

A doctor padna of mine told me, but I don't want to go in detail next thing dey setting him up to see who leaking information, or if he setting me up to see who leaking his information.

All I could say is wait for official confirmation (if there is any)

[adnj]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

Boy... they hit the public with so much bullsheit during the past 6 weeks it not even funny anymore.

Trinidad isn't using the same test that is used in the USA.

[redmanjp]

A doctor padna of mine told me, but I don't want to go in detail next thing dey setting him up to see who leaking information, or if he setting me up to see who leaking his information.

All I could say is wait for official confirmation (if there is any)

a doctor wey? in MOH?

[Blaze d Chalice]

^ Yeah.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

e0aa7a26-8624-469e-88e7-88e4231bf7b0.jpg

https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest

LOL China 0 yeah right.

[MaxPower]

Better prepare ollor anguses.

Some new cases were allegedly detected.

I don't want to say the exact number but it is allegedly less than 5.
But don't take my word for it.
Wait for official sources, but still prepare angus.

WTF,

Aite we go see if its true.

[MaxPower]

Na boi Blazey, same 115

[rspann]

Yesterday around 11am I followed an ambulance that was es orted by a police vehicle with sirens blaring and they pulled into Couva Hospital.

[adnj]

Yesterday around 11am I followed an ambulance that was es orted by a police vehicle with sirens blaring and they pulled into Couva Hospital.

Lunch delivery.

[rspann]

[Dohplaydat]

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

How could they test them? I was repeatedly told by the Minister of Health that asymptomatic people do not have enough viral load to be detected with the PCR testing.

Boy... they hit the public with so much bullsheit during the past 6 weeks it not even funny anymore.

Trinidad isn't using the same test that is used in the USA.

We aren't, but PCR testing detects viral loads. It has been stated from a multitude of medical bodies that asymptomatic persons often have higher viral loads than those showing symptoms.

But fine, let's say we took the fairly reasonable position of not testing random persons not showing symptoms. Testing is limited to the laughable 30 a day. Even Aruba is doing ten times more testing per population than us.

We are WOEFFULLY under testing that it is not even funny.

[aaron17]

When the virus talk cool down a lil bit...crime news ready to take its place...steups

[Dohplaydat]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... =editorial

What the first coronavirus antibody testing surveys can tell us
HEALTH | ANALYSIS 24 April 2020
By Michael Le Page

A few initial surveys looking at how many people have antibodies against the coronavirus have suggested that far more people have been infected than previously thought. But we need to be very cautious about these preliminary results.

So far, almost all testing has been looking for the presence of the virus in swabs of the nose or throat. But not everyone suspected to be infected gets tested in this way, so we know the actual number of cases in any country or region must be higher than the official figure.

The question is, how much higher? These figures matter because they can help indicate the best strategy for removing lockdowns or social distancing measures. This is why initial studies using a different kind of testing have been hitting the headlines. Unlike swab tests, antibody tests look to see how many people have antibodies against the coronavirus in their blood – a sign of past infection.

For instance, a study at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China, found that 2 percent of 3600 staff there had antibodies to the virus. That is surprisingly low, given the scale of the outbreak in Wuhan and that hospital staff are probably more likely to get infected than the general population.

By contrast, a study in Santa Clara County, California, where just 50 deaths have been attributed to the virus so far, claimed up to 4 percent of people there had already been infected – up to 85 times the official figure – based on a survey of 3000 people. Based on this finding, the team estimated that less than 0.2 percent of people infected with the coronavirus die, which is far lower than most other estimates, which tend to fall somewhere between 0.7 and 3.4 percent.

Read more: Can you catch the coronavirus twice? We don’t know yet
But this study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, and similar work elsewhere have come under fire. “We should not be making policies based on press releases until the studies are properly reviewed,” says Daniel Larremore at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “It really matters that we get these things right.”

There are two main issues. The first is that when only a tiny percentage of a population has been infected, antibody testing can wildly overestimate the number of people who’ve encountered the virus. The second is that it is hard to test a representative sample of the population, so results can end up being greatly skewed.

“Mathematically, it’s a problem when the prevalence is very low,” says Merit Melin of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

This is because, in these situations, the number of people wrongly identified as having had the coronavirus – false positives – can be higher than the number of people who really have been infected.

For instance, suppose an antibody test has sensitivity of 99 percent – that is, just 1 in 100 results is a false positive. If 50 percent of a population has been infected, this test might tell you that 51 percent have antibodies – pretty close. But if only 0.1 percent have been infected, the test will tell you that about 1 percent have been infected – a tenfold overestimate.

Researchers can correct for this, and the Santa Clara results were adjusted to take this into account. However, this adjustment was based on the test having a sensitivity of 99.5 percent. But if the true test sensitivity is just slightly lower at 98.5 percent, for example, all the reported positives would be false positives.

Another issue is how you recruit volunteers for antibody testing. The Santa Clara study found volunteers through Facebook, and it’s possible that people who suspect they have had covid-19 may have been much more likely to volunteer. Ideally, studies should randomly select people.

Better studies should give us a clearer idea of the true numbers. Melin’s team, for instance, is using a second test to confirm all positives, with results for Finland expected at the end of the month.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

WOW

Covid is found in air pollution? wtf

[Blaze d Chalice]

Na boi Blazey, same 115

Seeing that but I will still wait for the 10pm update, (if they still have those) or even tomorrow because their timing with updates is sometimes off.

The reason I skeptical is because the person briefly mentioned surnames as well and I didn't ask any additional info to get anybody in trouble. So we will stick with "alleged" for the time.

[Gem_in_i]

I was told of 2 persons who tested positive. I waited on the update to reflect those 2 additional persons. It didn't happen until almost 5 days later. Made me more skeptical of their reporting.