The following reports are from Study Finds (see commentary at the end):
Mouthwash Tests For Covid Just As Accurate As Nasal Swabs
Anyone who has undergone a SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal swab test knows that they aren’t exactly a pleasant experience. Despite this “brain-tickling” test being quite uncomfortable, scientists still consider it the gold standard of COVID tests. That may soon change, however. New research indicates that a gargle lavage (mouthwash) test is just as accurate as a swab assessment and a much simpler process to boot.
Among a group of 80 individuals, 26 tested positive for COVID-19 via swab testing. When that same group used a mouthwash test, the exact same 26 individuals tested positive as well. Importantly, both the nasal and mouthwash tests were of the polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) variety. Researchers say these tests are highly sensitive and capable of producing a result in real-time.
Our results show that in all cases, where people were positively tested by the gold standard nasal swabbing, one could also detect the virus in gargle lavage by the same RT-PCR method.
Study author Christof R. Hauck, PhD, a professor of cell biology at the University of Konstanz in Germany, in a media release
Even better, whereas the swab test requires medical personnel to conduct the exam and wear PPE, individuals can do the mouthwash test by themselves.
This sampling procedure can be conducted safely in a general practitioner’s office without extra protective equipment for physicians’ staff, as the patients themselves perform the sampling. We usually sent the patients with the gargle solution and sampling container outside.
All medical staff have to do is watch the patient from a window to ensure they gargle the solution and spit it back into a cup correctly.
We need not expose trained personnel to the danger of taking samples from so many potentially infected people.
Dr. Hauck
All tested subjects were either dealing with some respiratory symptoms or had come into contact with a COVID-positive individual. Everyone underwent a swab test first, and then performed the mouthwash test themselves.
These paired samples were then transferred to the central diagnostic lab, where they were analyzed in parallel, so that the results could be directly compared. Besides performing diagnostics on symptomatic patients, we are involved in regular SARS-CoV-2 surveillance on our university campus, where we test people twice a week. As nasal swabbing is not very pleasant, we were looking for an alternative, and gargle lavage turned out to be highly accepted.
The fact that both tests came to the exact same results leads the research team to conclude that
The painless self-collection of gargle lavage provides a suitable and uncomplicated source for reliable SARS-CoV-2 detection.
The findings appear in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.
Eye Scan Could Determine Whether Covid Patients Will Be ‘Long Haulers’
“Long COVID” continues to confound doctors as patients still struggle with debilitating symptoms months after first being infection. A new study now suggests that COVID patients who could be long-haulers could be diagnosed by taking a close look at their eyes. Nerve fiber loss and an increase in key immune cells on the surface of the eye may be a way of identifying the long term impact of the virus, say scientists.
The changes are particularly evident among those with neurological symptoms, such as loss of taste and smell, headache, dizziness, numbness, and neuropathic pain. Doctors at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar say long COVID is characterized by a range of symptoms which continue for more than four weeks after the acute phase of the infection has passed, and which aren’t explained by an alternative diagnosis.
Around one in 10 people infected by the virus will become COVID long-haulers. It has been suggested that small nerve fiber damage may underlie its development.
To explore the theory, researchers used a real-time, non-invasive, high-resolution imaging laser technique, called corneal confocal microscopy — or CCM — to pick up nerve damage in the cornea. The cornea is the transparent part of the eye that covers the pupil, iris, and the fluid-filled interior. Its main function is to focus most of the light entering the eye.
CCM has been used to identify nerve damage and inflammatory changes attributable to diabetic neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia..
Forty people who had recovered from confirmed COVID-19 infection between one and six months earlier completed a National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) questionnaire. Data was used to find out if they had long Covid, with a total score ranging from zero to 28. Neurological symptoms were present at four and 12 weeks in 22 out of 40 patients (55%) and 13 out of 29 (45%), respectively, according to the findings published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
The participants’ corneas were then scanned using CCM to look for small nerve fiber damage and the density of dendritic cells. These have a key role in the primary immune system response by capturing and presenting antigens from invading organisms.
The corneal scans were compared with those of 30 healthy people who hadn’t been infected by COVID.
Results show that 55% of the COVID patients had no clinical signs of pneumonia. Twenty-eight percent had clinical signs of pneumonia not requiring oxygen therapy. Ten percent had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia and received oxygen therapy, and 8% with pneumonia had been admitted to the intensive care.
The corneal scans revealed that patients with neurological symptoms for four weeks after they had recovered from acute COVID-19 had greater corneal nerve fiber damage and loss, with higher numbers of dendritic cells, than those who hadn’t been infected by the virus. Those without neurological symptoms had comparable numbers of corneal nerve fibers as those who hadn’t been infected with COVID, but higher numbers of dendritic cells.
The questionnaire responses indicative of long COVID symptoms correlated strongly with corneal nerve fiber loss.
Professor Rayaz Malik said in a statement
He notes that it was an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause, and only a small number of participants were involved.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting corneal nerve loss and an increase in [dendritic cell] density in patients who have recovered from COVID-19, especially in subjects with persisting symptoms consistent with long COVID. We show that patients with long COVID have evidence of small nerve fiber damage which relates to the severity of long COVID and neuropathic as well as musculoskeletal symptoms. Corneal confocal microscopy may have clinical utility as a rapid objective ophthalmic test to evaluate patients with long COVID.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
“Our results show that in all cases, where people were positively tested by the gold standard nasal swabbing, one could also detect the virus in gargle lavage by the same RT-PCR method.” -Uh, hate to break the news to you, but the CDC is canning the PCR test by the end of the year, admitting that the test has a hard time differentiating the difference between Covid and the flu.
Furthermore, as explained in that report, the virus has yet to be properly isolated, breaking the very basics of virology (which is a critical detail in this whole shamdemic, that The WinePress routinely reiterates and reminds of the admitted and documented facts – something that very few people know about or outlets are willing to state, lest they be scorned). So by default, any test that is used will be inaccurate, including the mouthwash and retinal scans. You can read more about it in the above link, or in this one below:
Facts Are Facts: Learn The Data Surrounding Covid-19
So all this “long Covid” is just more malarkey in my eyes, and I still maintain that the people with these symptoms are coming down with something else, but are labeled as Covid-19.
But as for the eye scanner test, again, it will be inaccurate without an isolated virus to look for. More of these tests are meant to be invasive on purpose; and especially in the case of the eye scanner, it is meant to further condition more of the masses to warm up to the idea of the coming mark of the beast system.
[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.Revelation 13:16-18
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
The WinePress needs your support! If God has laid it on your heart to want to contribute, please prayerfully consider donating to this ministry. If you cannot gift a monetary donation, then please donate your fervent prayers to keep this ministry going! Thank you and may God bless you.
