Can you Debunk this asymptomatic spreader study on an airplane

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Abstract​

We conducted a cohort study in a controlled environment to measure asymptomatic transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on a flight from Italy to South Korea. Our results suggest that stringent global regulations are necessary for the prevention of transmission of this virus on aircraft.
Undocumented cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection have been common during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic (13). Although inflight transmission of symptomatic COVID-19 has been well established (1,2), the evidence for transmission of asymptomatic COVID-19 on an aircraft is inconclusive. We conducted a cohort study evaluating asymptomatic passengers on a flight that carried 6 asymptomatic patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. The Institutional Review Board of Armed Force Medical Command approved the study protocol. The ethics commission waived written informed consent because of the urgent need to collect data on COVID-19.

The Study​

On March 31, 2020, we enrolled in our study 310 passengers who boarded an evacuation flight from Milan, Italy, to South Korea. This evacuation flight was conducted under strict infection control procedures by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), based on the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) (4). When the passengers arrived at the Milan airport, medical staff performed physical examinations, medical interviews, and body temperature checks outside the airport before boarding, and 11 symptomatic passengers were removed from the flight. Medical staff dispatched from KCDC were trained in infection control under the guidance of the KCDC and complied with the COVID-19 infection protocol, which was based on WHO guidelines (4). N95 respirators were provided, and passengers were kept 2 m apart for physical distancing during preboarding. Most passengers wore the N95 respirators except at mealtimes and when using the toilet during the flight. After an 11-hour flight, 299 asymptomatic passengers arrived in South Korea and were immediately quarantined for 2 weeks at a government quarantine facility in which the passengers were completely isolated from one another. Medical staff examined them twice daily for elevated body temperature and symptoms of COVID-19. All passengers were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcription PCR twice, on quarantine day 1 (April 2) and quarantine day 14 (April 15).
Asymptomatic patients were those who were asymptomatic when they tested positive and did not develop symptoms within 14 days after testing (5). Among the 299 passengers (median age 30.0 years; 44.1% male), 6 had a confirmed positive result for SARS-CoV-2 on quarantine day 1 and were transferred immediately to the hospital (Table). At 14 days after the positive test, the 6 patients reported no symptoms and were categorized as asymptomatic.
Cohort study of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission on evacuation flight from Milan, Italy, to Incheon, South Korea, on March 31, 2020. Red indicates asymptomatic patients who tested positive on quarantine day 1 (April 1, 2020); blue indicates asymptomatic patient who tested positive on quarantine day 14 (April 15, 2020). A) Timeline of flight, passenger quarantine, and testing protocol. B) Location of 6 asymptomatic patients and subsequently infected patient on flight. C) Case report of patient apparently infected during evacuation flight.

Figure. Cohort study of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission on evacuation flight from Milan, Italy, to Incheon, South Korea, on March 31, 2020. Red indicates asymptomatic patients who...
On quarantine day 14, a 28-year-old woman who had no underlying disease had a confirmed positive test result for COVID-19. On the flight from Milan, Italy, to South Korea, she wore an N95 mask, except when she used a toilet. The toilet was shared by passengers sitting nearby, including an asymptomatic patient. She was seated 3 rows away from the asymptomatic patient (Figure). Given that she did not go outside and had self-quarantined for 3 weeks alone at her home in Italy before the flight and did not use public transportation to get to the airport, it is highly likely that her infection was transmitted in the flight via indirect contact with an asymptomatic patient. She reported coughing, rhinorrhea, and myalgia on quarantine day 8 and was transferred to a hospital on quarantine day 14. The remaining 292 passengers were released from quarantine on day 15.
All crew members (n = 10) and medical staff dispatched from KCDC (n = 8) were quarantined at a government quarantine facility for 2 weeks and were tested twice for SARS-CoV-2, on quarantine days 1 and 14. All 18 members of the cabin crew and medical staff were negative for SARS-CoV-2 on both occasions.
To reinforce our results, we performed an external validation using a different dataset. Another evacuation flight of 205 passengers from Milan, Italy, to South Korea on April 3, 2020, was also conducted by KCDC under strict infection control procedures. Among the passengers on this flight were 3 asymptomatic patients who tested positive on quarantine day 1 and 1 patient who tested negative on quarantine day 1 and positive on quarantine day 14. On the basis of an epidemiologic investigation, the authors and KCDC suspect that this infection was also transmitted by inflight contact.
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Conclusions​

This study was one of the earliest to assess asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 on an aircraft. Previous studies of inflight transmission of other respiratory infectious diseases, such as influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome, revealed that sitting near a person with a respiratory infectious disease is a major risk factor for transmission (6,7), similar to our own findings. Considering the difficulty of airborne infection transmission inflight because of high-efficiency particulate-arresting filters used in aircraft ventilation systems, contact with contaminated surfaces or infected persons when boarding, moving, or disembarking from the aircraft may play a critical role in inflight transmission of infectious diseases (6,7).
Previous studies reported that viral shedding can begin before the appearance of COVID-19 symptoms (8,9), and evidence of transmission from presymptomatic and asymptomatic persons has been reported in epidemiologic studies of SARS-CoV-2 (5,10,11). Because KCDC performed strong infection control procedures during boarding; the medical staff and crew members were trained in infection control; all passengers, medical staff, and crew members were tested twice for SARS-CoV-2; and a precise epidemiologic investigation was conducted, the most plausible explanation for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to a passenger on the aircraft is that she became infected by an asymptomatic but infected passenger while using an onboard toilet. Other, less likely, explanations for the transmission are previous SARS-CoV-2 exposure, longer incubation period, and other unevaluated situations.
The control measures incorporated into our cohort study provide a higher level of evidence than previous studies on asymptomatic transmission (5,10,11). Our findings suggest the following strategies for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission on an aircraft. First, masks should be worn during the flight. Second, because contact with contaminated surfaces increases the risk for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among passengers, hand hygiene is necessary to prevent infections. Third, physical distance should be maintained before boarding and after disembarking from the aircraft.
Our research provides evidence of asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 on an airplane. Further attention is warranted to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 on aircraft. Our results suggest that stringent global regulations for the prevention of COVID-19 transmission on aircraft can prevent public health emergencies.
 

boris

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What I see seems to be all the same so far. Maybe someone else can chime in. They are basically saying „we have no explanation how she caught ‚the bug’ so it must have been an ‚asymptomatic spreader‘ on the plane“.

All that these studies are, is they are trying to rationalize how a person could have gotten infected with an exogenous virus causing them to get sick, when they had no contact with another infected person. See the mysterious COVID cases on the boat that was out on the sea for longer than any incubation period could have lasted.

What is actually happening is, people get positive and false positive results for an unspecific gene sequence that occurs in coronaviruses and many other places (possibly including endogenous retroelements let out during stress, also papayas). Some people get cold symptoms. + a lot of fantasy.

It all falls apart with the fraudulent test.
 
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jb116

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Yea my line in the sand is in the use of PCR test. If more and more laymen knew and understood the inadequate nature of PCR testing for diagnosis let alone identifying "infection," as well as the inventor's staunch disapproval for such use, the entire concept let alone the study falls flat. It's all banked on the testing.
 

DennisX

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It’s funny when I took a flight to Vegas In Jan/2018 I caught the H1N1 flu virus that killed ~200,000 people. I caught Covid-19 last month. The 2018 virus was worse than covid for me. Nobody was worried about testing for that virus, lockdowns or masks at that time.
 

boris

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Nobody was worried about testing for that virus, lockdowns or masks at that time.

They did in 2009 in Mexico. It was a fake pandemic, orchestrated by the WHO with payed off scientists, just like today.

Forbes | Why The WHO Faked A Pandemic
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a human rights watchdog, is publicly investigatingthe WHO's motives in declaring a pandemic. Indeed, the chairman of its influential health committee, epidemiologist Wolfgang Wodarg, has declared that the "false pandemic" is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century."
Even within the agency, the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Epidemiology in Munster, Germany, Dr. Ulrich Kiel, has essentially labeled the pandemic a hoax."

Academics who spoke out on swine flu risks were more likely to have industry links, study finds

Council of Europe condemns “unjustified scare” over swine flu

WHO and the pandemic flu “conspiracies”
"Key scientists advising the World Health Organization on planning for an influenza pandemic had done paid work for pharmaceutical firms that stood to gain from the guidance they wrote. These conflicts of interest have never been publicly disclosed by WHO"
 

tankasnowgod

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It’s funny when I took a flight to Vegas In Jan/2018 I caught the H1N1 flu virus that killed ~200,000 people. I caught Covid-19 last month. The 2018 virus was worse than covid for me. Nobody was worried about testing for that virus, lockdowns or masks at that time.

They did in 2009 in Mexico. It was a fake pandemic, orchestrated by the WHO with payed off scientists, just like today.

Forbes | Why The WHO Faked A Pandemic
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), a human rights watchdog, is publicly investigatingthe WHO's motives in declaring a pandemic. Indeed, the chairman of its influential health committee, epidemiologist Wolfgang Wodarg, has declared that the "false pandemic" is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century."
Even within the agency, the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Epidemiology in Munster, Germany, Dr. Ulrich Kiel, has essentially labeled the pandemic a hoax."

Academics who spoke out on swine flu risks were more likely to have industry links, study finds

Council of Europe condemns “unjustified scare” over swine flu

WHO and the pandemic flu “conspiracies”
"Key scientists advising the World Health Organization on planning for an influenza pandemic had done paid work for pharmaceutical firms that stood to gain from the guidance they wrote. These conflicts of interest have never been publicly disclosed by WHO"

I think this actually proves the point of DennisX. Yeah, there was media hysteria about Swine Flu in 2009. But there wasn't a lot of coverage of the flu season in 2018 (at least not that I remember).

Whatever the cause of the flu that year, it was somewhat newsworthy. Lot's of hospitals were overflowing, and elective procedures were being re-scheduled left and right, and many were using tents-


A coworker actually got the flu that year, and she said it was particularly harsh, had her bedridden for a few days, with symptoms lingering for six weeks.

The whole idea of not overburdening hospitals was the original justification for lockdown, but we had already experienced actual overburdening of hospitals just two years prior. Nothing like that occurred this year.
 

boris

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@tankasnowgod I see what you mean. I didn‘t really look into what happened in 2018.

My point to @DennisX could be made clearer: The severity of the disease probably had nothing to do with different virus strains. You can get a flu like illness and the severity will differ depending on you and the circumstances. Worries about lockdowns, testing, masks have nothing to do with levels of danger from any particular virus, it‘s politics/business.
 

tankasnowgod

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My point to @DennisX could be made clearer: The severity of the disease probably had nothing to do with different virus strains. You can get a flu like illness and the severity will differ depending on you and the circumstances. Worries about lockdowns, testing, masks have nothing to do with levels of danger from any particular virus, it‘s politics/business.

100% agree with this. No doubt, a lot of the flu isn't caused by "flu viruses." Jon Rappoport has written about this Peter Doshi paper quite a few times.



Flu like symptoms may simply be caused by excess endotoxin, regardless if it's a virus, bacteria, or other cause.

 

rei

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cosmic rays predict influenza epidemics. Airplane passengers are exposed to much higher cosmic rays. They developed "covid" during the flight not from asymptomatic spreader but environmental exposure. How convenient they were not tested before the flight to give the study any validity.
 

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