... It should be clear that I place a great deal of weight on the results of the "Red Cross Antibody Study" that was (belatedly) performed. I'd also note that "Red Cross blood donors" is about as random a "sample" of the American population as epidemiologists could get.
In other words, this was not a sample of people who said they'd had C…
... It should be clear that I place a great deal of weight on the results of the "Red Cross Antibody Study" that was (belatedly) performed. I'd also note that "Red Cross blood donors" is about as random a "sample" of the American population as epidemiologists could get.
In other words, this was not a sample of people who said they'd had Covid symptoms months earlier. This was just typical Americans who donate blood. In fact, if the "sample" HAD been people who had experienced ILI-type symptoms weeks earlier, the "positive" percentage probably would have been higher than 2.04 percent.
I also note that, per my research into antibody test results, it seems clear that people who had definite and pretty serious Covid symptoms were much much more likely to later test positive for antibodies than the group who had no symptoms or mild symptoms.
I imagine this "sample" included people who did have some symptoms weeks earlier and some who did not. It is a good sample in the sense that it tested people close to when they might have had symptoms or not. Of course, people who have recently been sick with cold or ILI symptoms are not supposed to donate blood. This tells me some of those positive blood donors might have had symptoms at least two weeks or more before they donated blood. This makes me think some of these people may have been symptomatic in October 2019 if not even earlier.
If memory serves, this CDC study does not report if the positive donors tested positive for IgG antibodies, IgM antibodies or both. That would be very important information on when these people may have been infected as IgM antibodies are not detectable after about a month of infection.
So an IgM "negative" result and an IgG "positive" antibody result actually means that person was infected at least 30 days before they donated blood. As far as I am aware, ALL of the individual cases I have highlighted in articles fit this description. That is, they got a positive antibody result in late April or early May but the test was "negative" for the IgM antibody. This means they did NOT have a recent case - which supports their position/belief they had Covid when they were "sick" many months earlier - in 2019.
... It should be clear that I place a great deal of weight on the results of the "Red Cross Antibody Study" that was (belatedly) performed. I'd also note that "Red Cross blood donors" is about as random a "sample" of the American population as epidemiologists could get.
In other words, this was not a sample of people who said they'd had Covid symptoms months earlier. This was just typical Americans who donate blood. In fact, if the "sample" HAD been people who had experienced ILI-type symptoms weeks earlier, the "positive" percentage probably would have been higher than 2.04 percent.
I also note that, per my research into antibody test results, it seems clear that people who had definite and pretty serious Covid symptoms were much much more likely to later test positive for antibodies than the group who had no symptoms or mild symptoms.
I imagine this "sample" included people who did have some symptoms weeks earlier and some who did not. It is a good sample in the sense that it tested people close to when they might have had symptoms or not. Of course, people who have recently been sick with cold or ILI symptoms are not supposed to donate blood. This tells me some of those positive blood donors might have had symptoms at least two weeks or more before they donated blood. This makes me think some of these people may have been symptomatic in October 2019 if not even earlier.
If memory serves, this CDC study does not report if the positive donors tested positive for IgG antibodies, IgM antibodies or both. That would be very important information on when these people may have been infected as IgM antibodies are not detectable after about a month of infection.
So an IgM "negative" result and an IgG "positive" antibody result actually means that person was infected at least 30 days before they donated blood. As far as I am aware, ALL of the individual cases I have highlighted in articles fit this description. That is, they got a positive antibody result in late April or early May but the test was "negative" for the IgM antibody. This means they did NOT have a recent case - which supports their position/belief they had Covid when they were "sick" many months earlier - in 2019.