China claims 10.9 million COVID tests in Qingdao City all negative: Taiwan’s Health Minister says “impossible”

Chen Shih-chung coughs during press conference

October 17, 2020October 17, 2020 Phillip Charlier 0 Comment Chen Shih-chung, China, COVID-19, false positive, Polymerase Chain Reaction Test

Chinese officials claimed yesterday that COVID-19 tests on 10.9 million people in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, had all returned negative results, but Taiwan’s Health Minister, Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), said today that such a result was impossible. Citywide tests for Qingdao City’s population of 11 million were ordered after a cluster infection of 13 people centered around a local hospital was discovered recently. The cluster was claimed to be China’s first case of locally transmitted COVID-19 in over two months. The

Health and Safety

April 14, 2020October 18, 2020 Phillip Charlier 1 Comment asymptomatic positive cases, COVID-19, false negative, false positive, quarantine

A Taiwanese businessman who was put into a negative pressure isolation ward in January ,after breaching quarantine on his return from Wuhan, China, then testing positive for COVID-19, was finally released today, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) confirmed. The man, who is not identified in media reports, but described as in his fifties, returned to Taiwan from Wuhan in January. However, instead of self-quarantining at home as required by anti-epidemic regulations, he went out to nightclubs in Kaohsiung City.

medical worker about to swab inside somebody's mouth

Health and Safety

March 19, 2020March 20, 2020 Phillip Charlier 1 Comment COVID-19, false positive, Polymerase Chain Reaction Test, Wuhan coronavirus

To get a more complete picture of how widespread the virus is in the United States, “we’re going to need millions and millions and millions of tests,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., during a CNN town hall on March 5, reported Science News. Yesterday, March 18, Taiwan reported a record daily number of “confirmed cases” of Covid-19 at 23, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 100. Eleven

false positive

China claims 10.9 million COVID tests in Qingdao City all negative: Taiwan’s Health Minister says “impossible”

Man spends 81 days in hospital with no symptoms of COVID-19

In the midst of viral panic, everybody ignores the problem of false positives, and they call for more tests