Promising new covid test
A Breathalyzer-type test that can detect COVID-19 within seconds is currently being tested and could become a noninvasive, rapid alternative to nasal swab tests, according to researchers.
COVID-19 infection causes a distinct breath print from the interaction of oxygen, nitric oxide, and ammonia in the body. An initial study of the breath test found that it gave accurate results for COVID-19 infections in almost 90% of critically ill patients with the disease.
The breathalyzer test can detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath within 15 seconds, according to researchers who have applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.
The study included 46 intensive care patients with acute respiratory failure who required mechanical ventilation. All of the patients had a PCR COVID-19 (nasal swab) test upon admission to the ICU, half were found to have COVID-19.
The researchers collected exhaled breath bags from all of the patients on days 1, 3, 7, and 10 of their hospitalization, the samples were tested within four hours after collection.
The testing proved to be 88% accurate in detecting the breath print of COVID-19, according to the study published Oct. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.
"The gold standard for diagnosis of COVID-19 is a PCR test that requires an uncomfortable nasal swab and time in a lab to process the sample and obtain the results," said lead researcher Dr. Matthew Exline, director of critical care at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
"This novel [Breathalyzer-type] technology uses nanosensors to identify and measure specific biomarkers in the breath," said test co-developer Pelagia-Irene Gouma, a professor in Ohio State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
"This is the first study to demonstrate the use of a nanosensor [Breathalyzer-type] system to detect a viral infection from exhaled breath prints," Gouma said in an Ohio State news release.
"PCR tests often miss early COVID-19 infections and results can be positive after the infection has resolved," Exline said in the release. "However, this noninvasive breath test technology can pick up early COVID-19 infection within 72 hours of the onset of respiratory failure, allowing us to rapidly screen patients in a single step and exclude those without COVID-19 on mechanical ventilation."
The researchers plan to further assess the use of the technology to detect less severe COVID-19, as well as other infections and diseases.
https://dfctoday.com/you-wont-believe-how-new-experimental-test-detects-covid-19/
**********************************************Fauci Orders Parents to Vaccinate Kids, Regardless of Concerns on Safety and Efficacy
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci told parents on Wednesday that they can ask questions about the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine, but that they need to get their kids vaccinated regardless.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of asking questions? We reserve the right to decide what is injected into our bodies.
"Children statistically, when they get infected they do not get the incidence of severe disease to the level of adults, particularly elderly do," Fauci said on CNN. "There have been about 700 deaths in the younger age group. But children are vulnerable. They can get infected. They also can spread the infection once they get infected within the family unit. So there are a lot of reasons to get the children vaccinated."
"There's no indication whatsoever, even any feasibility that would affect fertility at all," he continued. "In fact, in the millions and millions of doses and billions of doses that have been given worldwide of the vaccine, there is no indication whatsoever that it has anything to do with fertility. Giving it to a child, you have to look for a plausible mechanism of what that would be, and there is none."
Fauci said, "We will hit the ground running. Probably by the beginning of next week, we will be at full speed. So parents should consult with their pediatricians, family physicians, pharmacists and they will be able to know exactly where to get this particular vaccine for their children, from 5 to 11."
"We want to get out of the pandemic phase and into a good, controlled phase," he added. "There are different levels of approach and control of a particular outbreak...I don't think we're going to get to eradication. We only eradicated one viral disease and that's smallpox. But you can get it down to a very low level if you get enough people vaccinated, and a low level is one that doesn't interfere with how we function in society."
Despite what Fauci preaches, vaccines are not the answer to everything.
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Australian regulator requests information from Pfizer after British medical journal alleges contractor ‘falsified’ safety data
Australia’s medicines regulator has sought additional information from Pfizer after an investigation by the British Medical Journal alleged serious issues with a small number of its vaccine safety trials, including claims of “falsified data” and slowness following up on adverse reactions.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has stressed that Pfizer’s vaccine is “highly safe and effective”, and that Australians “should not be concerned about the issues raised in the article”.
The BMJ’s report, published last week, centred on a former employee of Ventavia Research Group, a Texas-based contractor involved in the phase-three trials for Pfizer’s Covid vaccine last year.
According to Brook Jackson, a former regional director at Ventavia, the company “falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events”, the BMJ reported.
The whistleblower, who provided the BMJ with “dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings and emails”, recounted that she repeatedly notified the company of the problems before finally emailing a complaint to the US Food and Drug Administration on September 25, 2020.
She was sacked the same day, with the company saying in her separation letter she was “not a good fit”.
In a statement to The Conversation, Ventavia said Ms Jackson was employed for “approximately two weeks” in September of 2020 and “no part of her job responsibilities concerned the clinical trials at issue”.
Ventavia said the “same accusations” were investigated and “determined to be unsubstantiated” last year.
Pfizer’s full phase-three trial involved about 44,000 participants across 153 sites. Ventavia enrolled more than 1000 participants at three sites – or only around 2 per cent of the total.
The drug company made no mention of the alleged problems at the Ventavia sites in a briefing document submitted to an FDA advisory committee meeting on December 10, 2020.
The FDA, which never audited Ventavia after receiving the complaint, issued its emergency use authorisation for the vaccine the next day.
A Pfizer Australia spokeswoman declined to comment on the BMJ report.
News.com.au understands the TGA has contacted Pfizer to further clarify the issues raised, although given the allegations only pertain to 2 per cent of the trial population, the overall results are not expected to be impacted.
“The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is highly safe and effective and has been approved for use in nearly 100 countries and also approved by the World Health Organisation,” a TGA spokeswoman said.
“Australians who have received the Pfizer vaccine should not be concerned about the issues raised in the BMJ article.”
She noted that “the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated in clinical trials has been thoroughly substantiated by real-world use in many millions of people worldwide”.
“The benefits of vaccination are clear and not in dispute,” she said.
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IN BRIEF
Gloomy landscape for Democrats in midterms as Joe Biden’s approval drops to 38% (USA Today) | “I didn’t run because of the polls”: Scranton Joe brushes off lagging poll numbers (Fox News)
Pete Buttigieg says administration will use “infrastructure” bill to address “racist” highway design (Daily Wire)
“Stay angry”: Barack Obama scolds us on climate from Glasgow (Reuters) | Obama’s climate speech is a reminder of how badly he governed (The Federalist)
House January 6 committee inquisition issues subpoenas to six top Trump advisers (Washington Post)
Authoritarian White House encourages businesses to prepare for vaccine mandate despite court injunction (National Review)
Woke U.S. Navy names ship after accused pedophile Harvey Milk (PM)
Illegal alien who allegedly murdered father of four “was on one of Biden's flights” (Daily Wire)
China’s navy is now world’s largest with 460 warships by 2030 (Washington Times)
That’s ominous: China builds mockups of U.S. Navy ships in area used for missile target practice (Reuters)
Justice Department seizes $6 million as part of crackdown on hackers linked to Kaseya attack (The Hill)
You know those cargo ships and trains waiting to be unloaded in California? Yeah, now homeless people are breaking in and stealing things from the stopped trains. (Not the Bee)
Consumer group attacks BlackRock for hypocrisy by investing in Chinese companies (Washington Times)
Nineteen-year-old wins New Jersey school board election after his senior year was ruined by COVID policies (Not the Bee)
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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