60  billion screenings, 70 million tests, 6 million cases,  170 thousand deaths for the China Pandemic in America since March 2020.

            I visited the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City last week and was screened for the China virus at the entrance.   An infection screen may include an oral interview, and a thermometer  to check for fever, but it is not a DNA viral test. Later, the technician for the hospital also took my blood sample. While the Phlebotomist was drawing my blood sample from the vein in my left arm, I asked if the lab would also test for COVID-19 antigens in the blood?  He said no. The media reported that the blood antigens from survivors could treat others who became infected.  

Upon return to Saint George, I went to the IHC Dixie Medical Center for tests and evaluation. Again I was screened by a hospital worker, when I walked in the front door entrance.  Another oral screening, ‘have you had any cough, sneezing, fatigue, shortness of breath, or been exposed to anyone with Covid-19 within the past 14 days?’ Not me. 

            Then we went shopping at Harmon’s, and Target, and in each, a worker is there to wipe down the shopping carts, and provide a sanitized cart. They also offer masks if you need one, and do another screening, sometimes by sign, but continuing a visual screening. 

            So I began to think.  I have been screened 6 to 10 times a week since mid March, and it is now mid August, about 22 weeks, for about 175 screenings, at least.   Over and over.  The screenings  included flights on commercial aircraft,  shopping at Walmart, Costco, Giant, Dick’s, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Home Depot,  TJ Max, Staples,  Marriott,  JJill, CVS, clinics, in Utah and Virginia. 

For example, on or about March 31^st, I inquired at Costco in Saint George as to how many customers came through each day. The guard replied about 8,000 that day, each screened for the plague. One day, one store, eight thousand customer screenings. Costco has 543 stores nationwide, so Costco presumably performed upwards of four and a half million screenings that day nationwide. 

            I submit I am ‘everyman’.  When the media reports viewing TV, my viewing is average. We have one car.  I am a home owner like two thirds of the country. I am a veteran, and grandparent.   So, as ‘everyman’, and  using me as a survey of one, and multiply my screenings by the population of the United States, about 320 million, I submit that the United States has had an estimated sixty billion COVID 19 screenings since March.   Some average Americans may have not been out of their basements or beds in 4 months, but there are others who are out twice or ten times my visits and screenings.  My screenings count excludes church meetings, from which we have been quarantined, but which could add another 4 dozen screenings. Also, curb side or home delivery or drive through for Domino’s Pizza, Burger King, Popeyes, Dairy Queen, Wendy’s, MacDonald’s, In n Out, Deseret Industry, county library, Linn’s, are excluded from Screenings.

Since the Pandemic gained notoriety in  February, the daily count of confirmed cases has been publicized daily.  

As I write these notes,  18 August 2020, these are samples of the media report on COiv-19 Cases.

Associated Press. Arkansas Reports 16 more COVID-19 Deaths, 410 new cases.

CNN UNC-Chapel Hill reverses plans for in-person classes after 130 students test positive for Covid-19

The Wall Street Journal New U.S. Coronavirus Cases slip to lowest since late June.

Reuters Brazil coronavirus cases top 3.4 million, death toll nears 110,000

Bloomberg Texas cases Up; Notre Dame halts in Person    

            The media  oft times quote John Hopkins University for its Coronavirus Resources Center.  The Center for Disease Control explains that a test is not equal to a case. For four reasons, first one person may be tested more than once, meaning one person may be tested a dozen times.  If you are President, perhaps 10 dozen times.  Second, the test must confirm the virus as a positive result. Third, the China virus tests, based on DNA of the coronavirus (SARS), are eighty percent accurate. Fourth, the cases may be called a ‘false positive’ meaning the test is positive that the patient has the disease, but in fact the patient does not. The Johns Hopkins center report lists positive results at 6.6% (7 day moving average) as of today of the total testing. And the ‘false negative’ meaning the test reports the patient has not been infected with the disease, but in fact they do have the disease. This results from the fact that a virus colony is not spread throughout the mucus system, but puddles and if the puddle is not swabbed, the virus is missed.  Or the patient was tested too early or too late in their infection. Or Laboratory error. For more on limitations see the center’s explanations.

            So let’s start a COVID-19 SCREENING project at UtahStandardNews.com.  The coronavirus center [jhu.edu/testing] has reported a daily average testing of 800 thousand,  which makes a running total of seventy million tests, nationwide. Or approximately one  Covid-19 DNA test for every 900 screenings.

            What is the significance of SCREENING versus TESTING? ‘’On May 12, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) advised governments that before reopening, rates of positivity in testing (ie, out of all tests conducted, how many came back positive for COVID-19) of should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days.’’

            If you only test people with active symptoms, the percentage rate of positive will be  one hundred times higher. The 99% of the population with no symptoms have been screened out. The positive rate must be much higher than the general population.  So the WHO can say, don’t reopen, your positive rate is too high. The WHO says only test those will show positive, so the rate of positive testing (i.e. infection) is up.  The ‘reopen’ refers to the economy, such as theaters, stadiums, restaurants, meetinghouses, hotels, offices, hospitals, schools.  The WHO has stacked the cards against these businesses, by setting a five percent of positive case of test threshold, but excluding screenings.

            The Utah public health ignores screenings. It also ignores all other maladies, and only counts the China Virus.

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