We’ve all seen the media reports of Trump calling the coronavirus a hoax. Except he didn’t. What he did was compare the Democrat’s attempt to impeach him to their criticism of his response to the virus saying, referring to their criticism, “this is their new hoax”. Let me put that a different way. The President didn’t say that the virus was a hoax, he said the hoax was the Democrat’s criticism of his response to the virus*.
So, everyone believed the out-of-context message presented by the media instead of listening to what the President actually said.
As it turns out, there is a COVID-19 hoax.
Let’s say a woman has unprotected sex with a man. Assuming everything works as it should, she will have been “exposed” to the man’s sperm. But, does that automatically mean she’s pregnant? Of course not. Similarly, just because someone has been exposed to a coronavirus, it doesn’t automatically mean they’re infected with COVID-19.
We constantly hear about the number of new daily cases of COVID-19. But we don’t know the number of cases. Because we’re not testing for them. The PCR (nasal swab) test can’t determine if someone has been infected with the virus. It can only determine if someone has been exposed to the virus.
What the media reports, and politicians reinforce, is inaccurate and misleading. They say the daily count of coronavirus test results indicates the number of people who have tested positive for the virus. That’s technically correct but misleading. Instead, a more accurate statement would be that the test results indicate the number of people who have tested positive for exposure to the virus. Those two little words make a lot of difference.
Instead of attempting to be more accurate, the message quickly gets obfuscated further when they say the test results indicate the number of new “cases”.
The number reports the number of “cases” where someone has tested positive for exposure to the virus. But, ask anyone what they think the term “new cases” means and they’ll tell you that a “case” of COVID-19 is when someone is infected with the disease. Because that’s how the term “case” is used for every other disease. But, with COVID-19, the word “case” is used to imply that the daily number of new exposures indicates the number of new infections.
Most people will tell you that they believe a positive coronavirus test means they have the disease. But it doesn’t. It only means that they had come in contact with the virus.
To put it in simple terms: If you take a nasal swab (PCR) test and it indicates you’re positive for COVID-19, it DOES NOT mean that you have COVID-19.
According to the CDC, the nasal swab tests are very effective at determining if you’ve been exposed to the virus. They can tell the difference between SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and other coronaviruses. More accurately, if a specific type of virus exists on a swab, they can find it. But only if they look for it. Other viruses could also be on the swab but unless they specifically look for them, they won’t find them. While they might find SARS-CoV-2 on a swab, it might not be the only virus there.
The symptoms for COVID-19 are identical to symptoms for a lot of other things. But, just because you have sore throat and a cough it doesn’t mean you’ve got COVID-19, even if you tested positive for exposure to the virus. The only way to know if you have had COVID-19 is to take an antibody test (an antibody test requires a blood draw so you’d likely know if you had one).
Also according to the CDC, while the antibody test can accurately detect antibodies for a coronavirus, the test can’t differentiate between COVID-19 and other diseases also caused by coronaviruses (such as the common cold). The common cold can generate antibodies that are indistinguishable from COVID-19 antibodies.
Since they don’t know for sure, it’s assumed that if you tested positive for exposure to COVID-19, and subsequently test positive for coronavirus antibodies, you had COVID-19. But you could have had something else and it’s impossible to tell either way.
Let’s walk through a scenario.
- You get swabbed and tested for SARS-CoV-2.
- You test “positive for SARS-CoV-2. There is also the virus on the swab that causes the common cold but it wasn’t found because it no one looked for it.
- You develop a runny nose, cough and a low-grade fever.
- You take an antibody test and find that you have coronavirus antibodies.
The assumption will be that because you tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, your symptoms were caused by a mild case of COVID-19. But, your runny nose, cough and fever could have also been caused by having a cold. Even if you had been tested for other viruses in step 2, there is no way to tell for certain what caused the development of your coronavirus antibodies.
While it wasn’t what he meant, President Trump was accurate when he said there was a COVID-19 hoax. The COVID-19 hoax is that the public is purposely being misled to get people to believe that the risk of being infected with COVID-19 is greater than it actually is. This manipulates people into blindly accepting the extreme measures being taken to “protect” us from the virus.
The politicians and the media may be misleading people but they don’t actually lie about anything. They’re also not putting any effort into educating people about what’s really going on. Because they are perpetuating a hoax. Because if people understood what the tests really mean, they would be less afraid. And if people are less afraid, they’ll be harder to manipulate and control.
*To be completely accurate, the President was quoting a staff member as saying that COVID-19 is the Democrat’s new hoax.
