Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China | Nature Communications

There were no positive tests amongst 1,174 close contacts of asymptomatic cases. 107 of 34,424 previously recovered COVID-19 patients tested positive again (re-positive rate 0.31%, 95% CI 0.423–0.574%).
— Read on www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19802-w

This is great. The first time the notion of “asymptomatic transmission” was mentioned, I smelled a rat. It’s biologically implausible. Not saying it’s never happened once, but as an important contribution to transmission? No. To be a source, you need lots of virus in your…

…airway. But once that happens, you will be symptomatic, either because the virus is injuring your lung lining (epithelium) or because you’re fighting it off (or both). You can’t be both a virulent source AND not have symptoms. Yet it was on the basis that you often wouldn’t…

…show symptoms yet place others at risk that MASS TESTING, all the time, in ever-increasing numbers, was commenced. Now we formally know what basic biology & immunology told us, we can HALT MASS TESTING OF THE ASYMPTOMATIC. We’ve said it for months. Mr Hancock, stop it now.

Originally tweeted by Yardley Yeadon (@MichaelYeadon3) on November 21, 2020.