The Biden Administration is spending $1.6 Billion to fund the mass testing of healthy people using cheaply produced paper-based rapid response antigen tests for active Covid-19 infections. The Biden administration is already using the Department of Defense to give out massive contracts for these tests using the Defense Production Act. Ellume, an Australian-based company, is receiving $232 million to increase their US production of these cheap tests to up to 640k per day by the end of 2021. Six other companies are expected to receive large contracts as well. The US company Innova currently manufactures these tests in China and already has a contract with the government of the United Kingdom. They are expected to get a huge US contract as well. Innova is opening two plants in California and hopes to pump out 50 million domestically made rapid response antigen tests per month by this Summer.
Tim Manning, the head of Biden’s Covid-19 response team says mass cheap testing is the way to get everyone “back to normal life.” One major issue not being addressed that using these cheap paper-based tests to mass test healthy people will lead to an ever-increasing number of false positives. Last December, the British Journal of Medicine reported that out of 79 Scottish University students who tested positive on an Innova SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Qualitative Test, only 42% were confirmed by PCR tests and 58% were false positives.
The UK government’s plans for community testing for covid-19 received a further blow this week when early results from students testing at the University of Birmingham and universities in Scotland showed that tests had a sensitivity of just 3% and that 58% of positive test results were false. – British Journal of Medicine, Dec 23rd, 2020
For the seven-day period between February 23rd and March 2nd, healthcare workers conducted an average of 1,526,933 Covid-19 tests each day in the United States. An average of 64,433 came back positive, or 4.2%.
In the Northeastern USA, testing hit an all-time high, and the positive rate was 3.35%. For the western United States, only 2.75% of all tests came back positive. The positive rate was the highest in the south, with 7.1% coming back positive. Though the level of testing is way down in the south compared to the rest of the country. Overall number of people testing positive in the south is the same as late October.
An ever-increasing percentage of these tests are the newer rapid response antigen tests. On November 3rd, the CDC issued guidelines to healthcare workers warning of very substantial rates of false positives with these tests. The percentage of positives, which are false positives, increases as the prevalence rate decreases. The CDC also advises people not to take the test too often, or a false positive will eventually occur. Ten days after the CDC released these guidelines, Elon Musk claimed to have received a 50% false-positive rate after taking the test four times.
“Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.” — Elon Musk November 13, 2020
The number of people testing positive is the lowest since mid-October. However, at that time, about 1,150,000 tests were being given per day in the USA. The number of tests coming back positive peaked in January with as many as 12.5% of all tests coming back positive.
Mass testing with rapid response antigen tests is a key component of the Biden administration’s plan to stop the virus. With only a 4.2% positive rate, how much of that is a false positive? This is something that no one seems to be looking at. The scientific community still hasn’t come up with firm data about what percentage of positives from the PCR tests are false positives.
Through mass testing with cheap paper-based rapid response antigen tests, the pandemic could be artificially perpetuated indefinitely. The more people tested the more false positives. Many media outlets, and some politicians have an interest in keeping the public affraid. The media gets more viewers and clicks when people are afraid. Politicians get more leaway to do whatever they want.
