COVID-19 TIMELINE: PREDICTION AND DIAGNOSIS
By TATIANA PROPHET
“A healthy society should not only have one voice.”
January 28, 2020. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meets with Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People. Photo/CNN.
NOVEMBER 9, 2015
RALPH BARIC, AN INFECTIOUS-DISEASE RESEARCHER at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a chimeric virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice, according to the team’s results, which were published in Nature Medicine. The team included four scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one from the Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens in Wuhan, China, one from Zurich and two from Harvard.
“In October 2013, the US government put a stop to all federal funding for gain-of-function studies, with particular concern rising about influenza, SARS, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). “NIH [National Institutes of Health] has funded such studies because they help define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions, enable the assessment of the pandemic potential of emerging infectious agents, and inform public health and preparedness efforts,” NIH Director Francis Collins said in a statement at the time. “These studies, however, also entail biosafety and biosecurity risks, which need to be understood better.”
“Baric’s study on the SHC014-chimeric coronavirus began before the moratorium was announced, and the NIH allowed it to proceed during a review process, which eventually led to the conclusion that the work did not fall under the new restrictions, Baric told Nature. But some researchers … disagreed with that decision.”
2015-2019
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH funded a series of grants totaling $3.7 million via New York City-based Eco-Health Alliance to investigate “how bat coronavirus could spread to human populations.” Part of the money went to the Level 4 lab in Wuhan, China. The Daily Mail said the grant was directly to the Wuhan Lab; USA Today said this was false; the grant actually went to the NGO “middleman.”
JANUARY 11, 2017
DR. ANTHONY S. FAUCI, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, stated at a Georgetown symposium that there is “ ‘no doubt’ Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency,” according to Healio Infectious Disease News. He explained: “The history of the last 32 years that I have been the director of the NIAID will tell the next administration that there is no doubt they will be faced with the challenges their predecessors were faced with.” He added: “We will definitely get surprised in the next few years.”
OCTOBER 28, 2019
THE JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a “tabletop” exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY called Event 201, A Global Pandemic Exercise. It envisioned not only a fast-spreading outbreak with devastating consequences, but a coronavirus outbreak. After the outbreak of SARS-CoVid-2, the group issued a statement to address rumors, stating that their event was purely for preparedness and involved a “fictional pandemic” scenario.
NOVEMBER 17, 2019
ESTIMATED DATE OF FIRST HUMAN CASES of the novel coronavirus (likely backdated), according to mainland China’s government documents seen by Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
DECEMBER 1, 2019
FIRST KNOWN CASE as discussed in The Lancet by doctors from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan.
DECEMBER 8, 2019
FIRST HUMAN CASE according to World Health Organization web site.
DECEMBER 15, 2019
TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES: 27 (South China Morning Post).
DECEMBER 20, 2019
TOTAL CASES: 60 (South China Morning Post).
DECEMBER 27, 2019
DR. ZHANG JIXIAN, A DOCTOR FROM HUBEI PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, told China’s health authorities that the disease was caused by a novel coronavirus. More than 180 people were reportedly infected. Zhang won an award.
DECEMBER 30, 2019
DR. LI WENLIANG, A WUHAN OPHTHALMOLOGIST, WROTE A PRIVATE POST on WeChat that he shared with his med school classmates and warning them to be alert and careful. Someone leaked it, and he was reprimanded by police. He later reportedly died of Covid-19.
DECEMBER 31, 2019
WUHAN HEALTH OFFICIALS REPORTED TO THE WHO a “cluster of cases of pneumonia” eventually identified as a novel coronavirus. (WHO timeline) Total confirmed cases: 266 (South China Morning Post).
A public page on the Mountain View, Calif.-based blog site Quora, Armchair Generals, posted an item stating Taiwan had lied about “warning” the WHO. “Apr 22 Taiwan did not issue a warning letter, but an enquiry letter dated 31 Dec 2019. Taiwan lied that they sent a warning letter on human-human transmission, so as to coordinate with the US to lead the world to believe that WHO had downplayed covid-19’s seriousness, and also to sue China for compensation on the Covid-19 pandemic.” Someone commented: “Are we surprised when Taiwan lies? No! They are liars like Trump gangs.” Another commented: “The politicians on this island will do anything to be as* lickers of its big daddy. That’s all.”
DECEMBER 31, 2019
Taiwan’s CDC sent an e-mail to the World Health Organization asking for information about news reports from the same day describing “at least seven atypical pneumonia cases” in Wuhan, China. Taiwan informed the WHO that those news reports stated people were being isolated. The e-mail politely asks: “I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us.”
Taiwan’s CDC tweeted a copy of the email on April 11, 2020. The WHO by its own admission has never responded to the e-mail, stating there was no request for information on person-to-person transmission. “If being treated in isolation is not a warning, what is?” asked Taiwan’s health minister, Chen Shih-chung at a press conference the same day they tweeted the email. What followed was a sparring match between the WHO and Taiwan. Even the New York Post quoted a truncated version of the email without the request for information. At China’s request, the WHO does not allow Taiwan to be a member of its organization, since China considers Taiwan part of its territory.
Taiwan’s Health Ministry has been laser focused on preparation for another SARS-like epidemic ever since the first one in 2003, being impeccable with training in decontamination and creating facilities dedicated solely to a pandemic, with negative air pressure systems in isolation rooms. As of May 11, 2020, Taiwan has had 440 total cases — and seven total deaths.
Commuters in Taiwan in April.
JANUARY 2, 2020
CHINA’S GOVERNMENT PUBLICLY BERATED EIGHT DOCTORS on national television for “rumor mongering.”
JANUARY 10, 2020
THE WHO PUBLISHED WORLDWIDE GUIDELINES FOR PREVENTION AND INFECTION CONTROL of the novel coronavirus based on previous coronaviruses SARS and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).
JANUARY 11, 2020
CHINESE HEALTH AUTHORITIES POSTED THE FULL GENOME of the 2019-nCoV virus in GenBank (other sources such as NEJM say January 7, 2020).
JANUARY 14, 2020
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION TWEETED: “PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS … BY CHINESE AUTHORITIES HAVE FOUND NO CLEAR EVIDENCE of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China” According to internal documents reportedly obtained by the Associated Press, China already knew they were dealing with a new disease that had been transmitted from person to person.
JANUARY 17, 2020
SCIENTISTS IN BERLIN PRODUCED A TESTING PROTOCOL FOR COVID-19. They had already designed “candidate diagnostic” tests or assays using genetic material from the previous SARS outbreak (later shown to be 79% matching RNA), then matched them to the genome when it came out, eliminating those that didn’t match. The WHO used Berlin’s protocol as their official testing protocol.
JANUARY 19, 2020
A 35-YEAR-OLD MAN PRESENTED TO AN URGENT CARE CLINIC IN SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Washington, with a 4-day history of cough and subjective fever. On checking into the clinic, the patient put on a mask in the waiting room. After waiting approximately 20 minutes, he was taken into an examination room and underwent evaluation by a provider. He disclosed that he had returned to Washington State on January 15 after traveling to visit family in Wuhan, China. - From the New England Journal of Medicine.
JANUARY 20, 2020
THE SAME PATIENT WAS HOSPITALIZED AT PROVIDENCE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER in an airborne-isolation unit for observation, after the CDC confirmed from nasopharyngeal swab that he tested positive for 2019-nCoV with a PCR test.
JANUARY 20, 2020
CHINA OFFICIALLY WARNED ITS CITIZENS OF A NOVEL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. During the lost six days, people had begun traveling outside Wuhan and even China for Lunar New Year celebrations.
JANUARY 21, 2020
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION published ahttps://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200122-sitrep-2-2019-ncov.pdf?sfvrsn=4d5bcbca_2stating there were 314 cases worldwide, all but five of them in China.
JANUARY 21, 2020
THE CDC CONFIRMED THE FIRST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS IN THE UNITED STATES in the state of Washington and announced it had finalized its coronavirus testing protocol.
JANUARY 22, 2020
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CNBC host Joe Kernen brought up the first case arriving in the U.S.: “If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you-- have you been briefed by the CDC? And-- PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have, and-- JOE KERNEN: --are there worries about a pandemic at this point? PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Not at all. And-- we’re-- we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s—going to be just fine,” adding that he had a great relationship with President Xi.
See transcript here.
JANUARY 25, 2020
PATIENT ZERO AT PROVIDENCE HOSPITAL SHOWED a decline in oxygen saturation values, to as low as 90 percent while he was breathing ambient air. The normal range for healthy individuals is 96-98 percent. The next day, chest x-rays showed presence of pneumonia in his lungs.
JANUARY 27, 2020
NEJM: “TREATMENT WITH INTRAVENOUS REMDESIVIR (A NOVEL NUCLEOTIDE ANALOGUE pro drug in development) was initiated on the evening of day 7, and no adverse events were observed in association with the infusion.”
JANUARY 27, 2020
SOUTH KOREAN HEALTH OFFICIALS PUT OUT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL to 20 biotech companies to come up with a rapid test for Covid-19 and assured rapid approval.
JANUARY 28, 2020
ON HOSPITAL DAY 8 (ILLNESS DAY 12), THE SEATTLE PATIENT’S CLINICAL CONDITION IMPROVED. “Supplemental oxygen was discontinued, and his oxygen saturation values improved to 94 to 96% while he was breathing ambient air. The previous bilateral lower-lobe rales were no longer present. His appetite improved, and he was asymptomatic aside from intermittent dry cough and rhinorrhea. As of January 30, 2020, the patient remains hospitalized. He is afebrile, and all symptoms have resolved with the exception of his cough, which is decreasing in severity.”
JANUARY 28, 2020
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, SAT WITH CHINA’S PRESIDENT XI JINPING in the Great Hall of the People and praised the nation for its handling of the outbreak. CNN reported on Feb. 16: “ ‘We appreciate the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership, and the transparency they have demonstrated,’ Tedros said, in comments that would be repeatedly quoted in China's state media for weeks.”
JANUARY 30, 2020
THE WHO DIRECTOR GENERAL DECLARED THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK A public health emergency of international concern and reported 7,818 confirmed cases worldwide. All except 82 cases were inside China.
JANUARY 31, 2020
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SUSPENDED TRAVEL TO THE UNITED STATES FROM ALL FOREIGN NATIONALS WHO HAD RECENTLY BEEN IN CHINA. Exceptions were for U.S. citizens, immediate family of U.S. citizens, and legal permanent residents. Reported TIME: “Americans returning to the U.S. who were in Hubei province — the epicenter of the outbreak — 14 days prior to returning to the country will be subject to up to 14 days of a mandatory quarantine, ‘to ensure they’re provided proper medical care and health screening,’ [HHS ] Secretary Alex Azar told reporters at a White House press briefing.” The same article in TIME magazine quoted the WHO as saying “there is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.” Continued TIME: “The agency reiterated that it ‘doesn’t recommend limiting trade and movement.’ ” Yet in a scathing editorial, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt stated that while Trump’s only good decision was the travel ban, “it did not include U.S. citizens traveling from China.” He never mentioned the mantadory 14-day quarantine that had been announced by HHS Secretary Alex Azar on the same day.
FEBRUARY 1, 2020
SOUTH KOREA APPROVED ITS FIRST RAPID ANTIGEN TEST PRODUCER. Antigen tests do not detect active cases, as antibodies are evident after recovery. Reuters: “Though there were only four known cases in South Korea at that point, ‘we were very nervous. We believed that it could develop into a pandemic,’ said one attendee, Lee Sang-won, an infectious diseases expert at the Korean CDC. … South Korea took a risk, releasing briskly vetted tests, then circling back later to spot check their effectiveness.” - Reuters
FEBRUARY 2, 2020
THE FDA HELD A PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED SUMMIT WITH REGULATORS, researchers and industry representatives. Based on video feed, they largely stuck to their prepared remarks and did not convey urgency when they did bring up coronavirus. (Same Reuters article)
FEBRUARY 3, 2020
THE CDC ISSUED ITS NOVEL CORONAVIRUS TEST PROTOCOL. The rapid-test polymerase chain reaction is a type of test that has been the “gold standard” for viral testing for decades. It generally requires specialized equipment available only at well-established laboratories. CDC requested an emergency use authorization from the FDA. “CDC’s test kit is intended for use by laboratories designated by CDC as qualified, and in the United States, certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) to perform high complexity tests.”
FEBRUARY 4, 2020
THE FDA GRANTED AN EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION FOR THE CDC’S TEST KITS. Kits were distributed.
FEBRUARY 8, 2020
SOME LABS BEGAN COMPLAINING THAT THE CDC’S TEST wasn’t working because of a “flawed component that gave inconclusive results.” (Axios later revealed the kits were contaminated, but not what they were contaminated with.) To be specific, before using the kits with any patients, the kits already produce false positives – while running a test with supposedly sterile H20.
FEBRUARY 11, 2020
THE CDC SAID IT WAS MANUFACTURING A “new component” for its official covid-19 PCR tests.
FEBRUARY 16-24
A WHO-CHINA JOINT MISSION TRAVELED TO BEIJING, WUHAN AND TWO OTHER AREAS. They visited medical facilities, maintaining “physical distancing.”
FEBRUARY 18, 2020
CDC ISSUED A LAB ADVISORY: “ALL TESTS FOR SARS-COV-2, INCLUDING LABORATORY DEVELOPED TESTS (LDTS), MUST BE REVIEWED AND CLEARED OR AUTHORIZED BY THE FDA for emergency use, or they cannot be used for diagnostic testing. … Qualified laboratories for use of the CDC-distributed 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, as defined by the EUA, include select U.S. state and local public health laboratories and Department of Defense laboratories. Diagnostic testing with this assay can only be done at CDC and by these qualified laboratories.” Critics said this advisory caused unnecessary delay.
FEBRUARY 21, 2020
CHINA STATE NEWS AGENCY XINHUA REPORTED THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID ANTIGEN TEST BY JIANGSU MEDOMICS MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY CO. AT NANJING UNIVERSITY. (In a March 12 article on an incubator web site, North Carolina company Biomedomics — located at Research Triangle Park which includes UNC Chapel Hill — claimed credit for developing it via their “subsidiary,” Jiangsu Medomics.)
FEBRUARY 22
THE FDA SENT TIMOTHY STENZEL, HEAD OF THE FDA’S OFFICE OF IN VITRO DIAGNOSTICS AND RADIOLOGICAL HEALTH, TO THE CDC TO HELP TROUBLESHOOT THE TEST-KIT DEFECTS. According to Politico, though the visit was planned, the CDC stated Stenzel had arrived a day early, and CDC officials made him wait overnight before he could enter the lab. An HHS official anonymously told Politico there was a problem with lab test cleanliness, which could have contributed to some kind of contamination.
FEBRUARY 26, 2020
CDC ISSUED A MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT. “…12 travel-related COVID-19 cases had been diagnosed in the United States, in addition to three COVID-19 cases in patients with no travel history (including two cases in close household contacts) and 46 cases reported among repatriated U.S. citizens.”
FEBRUARY 26, 2020
Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., threw a Mardi Gras party. Only those residents with concrete respiratory symptoms were kept in their rooms. Meanwhile, dozens of residents, visitors and staff shared cake and clapped as a local band performed songs like “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
FEBRUARY 26, 2020
A WOMAN IN SOLANO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, was diagnosed with the virus. Suspecting coronavirus, doctors at UC Davis asked public health officials about testing for COVID-19. But she went untested for 4 days because the request did not meet protocols laid out by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The woman didn’t have a history of travel or contact with a person with a known infection.
FEBRUARY 27, 2020
THE CDC HAD TESTED FEWER THAN 500 PEOPLE IN THE U.S. FOR THE VIRUS. BY CONTRAST, SOUTH KOREA, which is several days into an outbreak, had tested more than 66,000 people and confirmed more than 1,700 cases.
FEBRUARY 27, 2020
A PAPER BY CHINESE SCIENTISTS PUBLISHED IN THE MONTHLY PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, SHOWS THAT THE BIOMEDOMICS/JIANGSU rapid antigen test had an 88 percent sensitivity for detecting Covid-19.
FEBRUARY 28, 2020
EVEN IF YOU HAD SYMPTOMS, YOU COULD NOT GET A COVID-19 TEST UNLESS YOU WERE HOSPITALIZED WITH SEVERE ARDS, HAD CLOSE CONTACT WITH A LAB-CONFIRMED PATIENT OR A HISTORY OF TRAVEL. The CDC issued criteria for testing, stating “To date, there has been limited spread of COVID-19 in the United States.” Criteria are: Any person with fever and signs of lower respiratory illness (coughing and shortness of breath) … who has had close contact with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patient within 14 days of symptom onset; any person with fever and signs of lower respiratory illness that requires hospitalization who has a history of travel from affected geographic areas within 14 days of symptom onset; fever with severe acute lower respiratory illness (e.g., pneumonia, ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) requiring hospitalization and without an alternative explanatory diagnosis (e.g., influenza), with no identified source of exposure.
FEBRUARY 28, 2020
MORE THAN 100 VIROLOGISTS AND OTHER SPECIALISTS WROTE A LETTER TO CONGRESS REPORTING THAT MANY OF THEIR LABS HAD ALREADY VALIDATED TESTS for coronavirus that they could not run due to the FDA’s protocol for approving tests during outbreaks.
FEBRUARY 28, 2020
AT A CAMPAIGN RALLY, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP TOLD THE AUDIENCE: “Our country is stronger than ever before, we are better but while we are building a great future, the radical Democrats in Washington are trying to burn it all down. … And let’s see what happens in the coming months. Let’s watch. Let’s just watch. Very dishonest people. Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, you know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. … And this is their new hoax. … And so far we have lost nobody to coronavirus in the United States. And it doesn’t mean we won’t. … We are magnificently organized, with the best professionals in the world, we’re prepared for the absolute worst, you have to be prepared for the worst ... but hopefully it will all amount to very little. And that’s why I tell you with the flu, with 35,000 people. And this one, we have to take it very seriously, that’s what we’re doing, we’re prepared for the absolute worst. … And the Democrats’ single talking point, and you see it, is that, it’s Donald Trump’s fault, right? But you know what this does show you? Who would have thought of this two weeks ago, who would have thought of this going on – four weeks ago? But things happen in life, and you have to be flexible, and you have to go out and get it, and we have the best professionals in the world. And we are so ready. At the same time that I initiated the first federally mandated quarantine in over 50 years, we had to quarantine some people. They weren’t happy about it, I’ll tell you, but after two weeks they got happy. You know who else got happy, the people around them got happy. I created a Virus Task Force. I requested $2.5 billion. The Democrats said, that’s terrible. He should have asked for $8.5 billion. I’ll take it.”
FEBRUARY 29. 2020
THE FDA APPROVED ITS FIRST NON-CDC PRODUCED COVID-19 DIAGNOSTIC (PCR nasopharyngeal swab test). The agency also relaxed restrictions on non-certified and private labs to produce their own tests.
FEBRUARY 29, 2020
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, HEAD OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGIES AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, told the Today show that community spread in multiple countries makes our response more difficult, but that “at this point” he was not advising Americans to do anything different. “Right now, the risk is still low, but that could change.” Fauci also acknowledged that there had been a delay in testing, but that what was more important was testing people we had reason to believe had been exposed.
MARCH 4, 2020
CDC UPDATED THE GUIDELINES FOR TESTING TO INCLUDE: Hospitalized patients who have signs and symptoms compatible with COVID-19 in order to inform decisions related to infection control. Adults over age 65 and patients with chronic medical conditions and/or an immunocompromised state (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, receiving immunosuppressive medications, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease). Any persons who within 14 days of symptom onset had close contact with a suspect or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patient, or who have a history of travel from affected geographic areas within 14 days of their symptom onset.
MARCH 9, 2020
Two weeks after its Mardi Gras party, Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., suffered devastating Covid-19 numbers: 129 people were infected, including 81 residents, 34 staff members, and 14 visitors, testing showed. As of March 22, 35 deaths were tied to the home, around 7% of the national total deaths. https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-nursing-home-35-coronavirus-deaths-inside-the-kirkland-disaster-11584982494 MARCH 11, 2020 THE WHO DECLARED COVID-19 A PANDEMIC. MARCH 12, 2020 AN ARTICLE BY NORTH CAROLINA BIOTECH QUOTED BIOMEDOMICS CEO FRANK WANG as having sold half a million test kits in China via its subsidiary Jiangsu Medomics, as well as to South Korea and Italy, “and the number is growing daily,” stating they had hired six temporary workers at their offices in Morristown, N.C., to expand sales abroad.
MARCH 16, 2020
WHITE HOUSE TASK FORCE COORDINATOR Dr. Deborah Birx appeared to JUSTIFY THE TESTING DELAY, STATING: “Over the next few months, you will begin to see that other tests that were utilized around the world were not of the same quality, resulting in false positives and potentially false negatives. … It doesn't help to put out a test where 50% or 47% are false positives.”
MARCH 16, 2020
THE FDA APPROVED THE RAPID ANTIGEN TEST KITS APPLIED FOR BY BIOMEDOMICS along with several others using similar technology.
MARCH 18, 2020
THE WHO LAUNCHED THE “SOLIDARITY TRIAL” TO COMPARE “FOUR TREATMENT OPTIONS” USING SHARED GLOBAL DATA. The treatments are: Remdesivir, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Interferon beta-1a, and chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine. “WHO is concerned by reports of individuals self-medicating with chloroquine and causing themselves serious harm,” the agency announced. As of April 21, 100 countries were participating.
APRIL 18, 2020
THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTED THAT THERE WAS CONTAMINATION OF ONE OF THE THREE TEST COMPONENTS IN THE KIT, DUE TO WHAT ANONYMOUS SOURCES SAID WERE A DEVIATION FROM ACCEPTED PRACTICE. “The cross contamination most likely occurred because chemical mixtures were assembled into the kits within a lab space that was also handling synthetic coronavirus material. The scientists also said the proximity deviated from accepted procedures and jeopardized testing for the virus.” Note: the Berlin protocol recommended using SARS-CoVid-1 RNA (from 2003) as a control in the test, or “synthetic CoVid-19,” which has been made available by various WHO-affiliated agents. But apparently you have to be extremely careful with it when you produce the kits.
MAY 3, 2020
CDC ISSUED UPDATED GUIDELINES FOR TESTING, FOR THE FOURTH TIME SINCE MARCH 4, TO INCLUDE: High Priority: with symptoms: Hospitalized patient; Healthcare facility workers, workers in congregate living settings, and first responders; Residents in long-term care facilities or other congregate living settings, including prisons and shelters. Priority: with symptoms including: fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, new loss of taste or smell, vomiting or diarrhea, and/or sore throat; without symptoms and prioritized by health departments or clinicians, for any reason, including but not limited to: public health monitoring, sentinel surveillance, or screening of other asymptomatic individuals according to state and local plans.
