The Strange Case of Fergus Walsh's Antibodies

[Guinness Boy]

Looked for this on the main thread but I think it deserves one of its own.

BBC Medical Correspondant Fergus Walsh has had three antibody tests as part of his research into his role. Here he talks about having three positive tests, despite no Coronavorus symptoms. Or perhaps lots of symptoms but too early.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52762939

Sample quotes:

"Imperial College London are testing these finger-prick home antibody tests for accuracy and ease of use. One of the team there calculated that my repeated positive tests made it incredibly unlikely that I was continually producing a false result. In other words, it seems I have definitely had coronavirus."

"I've not had any symptoms in recent months. I'm rarely ill, but I did have a bout of pneumonia in early January. I was off sick for about 10 days and had a cough and a high temperature. I couldn't shake it off. My GP in Windsor diagnosed a bacterial infection and gave me antibiotics. These helped a bit, but in late January I needed another course of antibiotics."


I found it interesting myself because I've had a serious chest infection that took two courses of antibiotics to shift. My GP was convinced it was a reaction to covid but that it was too late for a test to show anything.

Walsh doesn't draw conculsions but the obvious ones are:

1) Covid was here much earlier than we thought
2) There has been another winter illness doing the rounds that causes serious chest infections or pneumonia.
3) If 2 is true then Covid may be asymptomatic in many more people than thought and some deaths may have been misregistered.

Fascinating either way.

 

[The Wizard]

There’s also the case of the man in France on December 27th who tested positive for coronavirus, they assumed it was pneumonia until they tested it 4 months later and discovered he had COVID, definitely not beyond the realms it could have been around earlier, the excess death rates are hard to argue with though so I’m not sure, if it was around earlier why was it so deadly in mid April?

You can buy an antibodies test for £80 online I believe, not sure if they are still in stock but you could when I last checked.

 

[Solid at the back]

Could it be that we've just had that second wave and that it indeed was around much earlier?

 

[e77]

There is an awful lot of anecdotal evidence of people having something similar before it apparently reached this country and the high estimated infection rate in London versus the rest of the country is interesting. I guess we won't know until widespread antibody testing take place.

 

[beorhthelm]

There’s also the case of the man in France on December 27th who tested positive for coronavirus, they assumed it was pneumonia until they tested it 4 months later and discovered he had COVID, definitely not beyond the realms it could have been around earlier, the excess death rates are hard to argue with though so I’m not sure, if it was around earlier why was it so deadly in mid April?

You can buy an antibodies test for £80 online I believe, not sure if they are still in stock but you could when I last checked.

yeah, i was long swayed by stories of the virus being around longer, but the excess death doesnt support that. unless thats down to health service operational decisions. there's also the multiple strain theory, with waves having a different effect.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Looked for this on the main thread but I think it deserves one of its own.

BBC Medical Correspondant Fergus Walsh has had three antibody tests as part of his research into his role. Here he talks about having three positive tests, despite no Coronavorus symptoms. Or perhaps lots of symptoms but too early.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52762939

Sample quotes:

"Imperial College London are testing these finger-prick home antibody tests for accuracy and ease of use. One of the team there calculated that my repeated positive tests made it incredibly unlikely that I was continually producing a false result. In other words, it seems I have definitely had coronavirus."

"I've not had any symptoms in recent months. I'm rarely ill, but I did have a bout of pneumonia in early January. I was off sick for about 10 days and had a cough and a high temperature. I couldn't shake it off. My GP in Windsor diagnosed a bacterial infection and gave me antibiotics. These helped a bit, but in late January I needed another course of antibiotics."


I found it interesting myself because I've had a serious chest infection that took two courses of antibiotics to shift. My GP was convinced it was a reaction to covid but that it was too late for a test to show anything.

Walsh doesn't draw conculsions but the obvious ones are:

1) Covid was here much earlier than we thought
2) There has been another winter illness doing the rounds that causes serious chest infections or pneumonia.
3) If 2 is true then Covid may be asymptomatic in many more people than thought and some deaths may have been misregistered.

Fascinating either way.

Prof Sunetra Gupta on Unherd (YouTube) who published a completely different model on covid19 than the one that was followed By the government (Neil Ferguson) ..holds great stock on the idea that is was here before we have been told it was