Quote:Highly anticipated antibody testing results out of Santa Clara County in California headed by a Stanford University professor were released on Friday, showing that the estimated number of positive novel coronavirus cases is likely 50-80 times higher than reported, thus significantly dropping the estimated fatality rate.

The study, the first large-scale community antibody testing in the nation and led by Dr. Eran Bendavid, the associate professor of medicine at Stanford University, found that 2.5 to 4.2% of the 3330 subjects tested were found to have COVID-19 antibodies.

The population prevalence of the virus in the county ranged from 2.49-4.16%, the researchers found.

“These prevalence estimates represent a range between 48,000 and 81,000 people infected in Santa Clara County by early April, 50-85-fold more than the number of confirmed cases,” the study’s abstract explained.

“The population prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Santa Clara County implies that the infection is much more widespread than indicated by the number of confirmed cases,” according to the researchers. If the number of the recovered cases are similarly undercounted across the nation, the fatality rate would accordingly be overstated.

Speaking to ABC News, Dr. Bendavid confirmed the “findings suggest that there is somewhere between 50- and 80-fold more infections in our county than what’s known by the number of cases than are reported by our department of public health.”

Epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital Dr. John Brownstein told ABC the study is “confirmation of what we’ve expected, which is a much larger number of cases than we ever anticipated.”

“There has been wide recognition that we were undercounting infections because of lack of testing or patients were asymptomatic,” Brownstein explained.

Brownstein, also an ABC News contributor, “cautioned that the results for the California county are not necessarily representative of the U.S. population and noted the use of online ads to find participants could skew the candidate pool,” the network noted.

According to the study’s abstract, participants for the testing were “recruited using Facebook ads targeting a representative sample of the county by demographic and geographic characteristics.”

The study also suggests California is far from so-called “herd immunity,” an idea floated last month when the the number of COVID-19 cases and virus-related deaths in California (population of 40 million) was far below the anticipated onslaught, especially in relation to New York.

“Bendavid said the research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests that the large majority of the county, around 95%, is still without antibodies,” ABC noted.

“[W]hat that means for things like, are we going to wait for people to get infected or get antibodies in order for them to get back to work… knowing that well upwards of 90% of the population doesn’t have antibodies is going to make that a very difficult choice,” he questioned.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump released guidance for states to follow with regard to opening their states’ economies back up. There are three phases of the gradual plan which relate to things like a declining number of cases for an extended period of time, as opposed to a specific date.

During a conference call with the governors Thursday, the president gave the green light for states that want to get moving before May 1, according to The New York Times.

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The left use science like a drunk uses a street lamp. Not as a means of illumination, but as a convenient way to support themselves.
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Why should we listen to these frauds again?

Quote:The World Health Organization issued a warning Friday about coronavirus testing, saying there’s no evidence serological tests can show whether a person has immunity or is no longer at risk of becoming reinfected.

“These antibody tests will be able to measure that level of serology presence, that level of antibodies, but that does not mean that somebody with antibodies” is immune, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit.

So-called serological, or antibody, tests can indicate whether a person has had Covid-19 in the past and was either asymptomatic or recovered.

More than 560,000 of the 2.1 million coronavirus cases across the world are marked as recovered, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. However, infectious disease experts say the case total is likely much higher as people go undetected and countries struggle with testing.

In the U.S., antibody tests have just begun to roll out. President Donald Trump has recommended states use the tests as they start relaxing some of the strict social distancing measures imposed to combat the pandemic, which has infected more than 671,000 people in the United States.

Kerkhove said WHO officials discovered many countries suggesting these tests would be able to “capture what they think will be a measure of immunity.”

“What the use of these tests will do will measure the level of antibodies. It’s a response that the body has a week or two later after they’ve been infected with this virus,” she said at a news conference at WHO’s Geneva headquarters. “Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual is immune or protected from reinfection.”

Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, said scientists are also still determining the length of protection antibodies might give a person who has been infected with the coronavirus.

“Nobody is sure whether someone with antibodies is fully protected against having the disease or being exposed again,” he said.

“Plus some of the tests have issues with sensitivity,” he added. “They may give a false negative result.”

Earlier this week, WHO officials said not all people who recover from the coronavirus have the antibodies to fight a second infection, raising concern that patients may not develop immunity after surviving Covid-19.

“With regards to recovery and then reinfection, I believe we do not have the answers to that. That is an unknown,” Ryan said Monday.

A preliminary study of patients in Shanghai found that some patients had “no detectable antibody response” while others had a very high response, Kerkhove said Monday. Whether the patients who had a strong antibody response were immune to a second infection is “a separate question,” she added.

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Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. WHO is just another anti-American UN organization that needs to go.

U.S. out of the UN, UN out of America.