Day: 19 December 2020

by Dr Clare Craig FRCPath and Jonathan Engler MBChB LLB Abstract Evidence of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from patients who remain asymptomatic (as opposed to pre-symptomatic) is found in a body of numerous meta-analyses. Evidence of asymptomatic transmission has been based on only a handful of instances which themselves are questionable. The existence of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from asymptomatic individuals has become an accepted truth but the evidence for this phenomenon being anything other than mistaken interpretation of false positive test results is weak. Examination of the underlying data from the most frequently-cited such meta-analyses reveals that the conclusions are based on a surprisingly small number of cases (six in total globally) and, moreover, the possibility that they are all coincidental contacts with false positive results cannot be ruled out. Transmission which is pre-symptomatic is rare and represents a negligible risk to the population. It is questionable therefore whether any of the extensive testing, tracing, isolation and lockdown policies have delivered any worthwhile benefit over and above strategies which seek to advise symptomatic individuals to self-isolate. Introduction Many of the world’s economies have been seriously damaged on the basis of alleged evidence that people with no symptoms can spread SARS-CoV-2. It is essential that all such claimed evidence is carefully scrutinised because of the immense and ongoing impact of that claim ...

Have yourself a Merry Little Lockdown Christian Adam's cartoon in the Evening Standard The Prime Minister warned yesterday that he could not rule out a new lockdown and we do appear to be heading that way. The Telegraph has more. Boris Johnson has put the country on notice that a third lockdown could be on its way in January as several Government scientific advisers warned restrictions could need to be tougher than before. While the Prime Minister said he hoped to avoid joining Wales and Northern Ireland in imposing new lockdowns after Christmas, he warned that “the reality is that the rates of infection have increased very much in the last few weeks”. Speaking on a trip to Bolton, he also signalled that decisions on COVID-19 restrictions in the new year would depend on how people approach the five-day window when social distancing rules are relaxed...It came as new estimates released by Sage showed the R number has risen from 0.9-1.0 to between 1.1 and 1.2, suggesting the virus is at risk of growing exponentially again. In a statement, the Sage sub-committee SPI-M also warned that modelling suggesting that "additional mixing" during the Christmas period may have a "large impact on post-Christmas prevalence", including a "slight shift towards a higher proportion of cases in older and more vulnerable age groups." One idea for avoiding ...