World Health Network's co-founder Eric Feigl-Ding took a swipe on CDC's latest recommendations after FDA asked people to at least two COVID-19 tests 48 hours apart. He opined that CDC may have arrived at its recommendations of 5-day zero-test-exit rule due to lack of funding since US is out of pandemic funds, or corporate interests and he questioned 'if US has no money left for COVID?'
Hours after the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) changed its recommendations for taking rapid and at-home COVID-19 tests in the hopes of decreasing false negatives, World Health Network's co-founder Eric Feigl-Ding raised an alarm saying this totally destroys Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky's 'bogus' 5-day zero-test-exit rule.
Apart from this, the epidemiologist and health economist said that FDA’s new guidelines emphasising more testing highlights the insanity of CDC Director's position to ignore COVID-19 quarantines.
2) the FDA’s new guidelines emphasizing more testing highlights the insanity of @CDCDirector’s position to ignore COVID quarantines. https://t.co/ovpghm9Gaw
Expressing his opinion on the recent US FDA advisory, Dr Ding took to Twitter and wrote, "BREAKING—the @US_FDA just advised people to perform repeat/serial testing following a negative result on any at-home #COVID19 antigen test, regardless **whether or not you have symptoms**. This now also totally destroys @CDCDirector’s bogus @CDCgov 5-day zero-test-exit rule."
⚠️BREAKING—the @US_FDA just advised people to perform repeat/serial testing following a negative result on any at-home #COVID19 antigen test, regardless **whether or not you have symptoms**. ➡️This now also totally destroys @CDCDirector’s bogus @CDCgov 5-day zero-test-exit rule. pic.twitter.com/NBgVtBkWYs
Dr Ding also noted that a negative test after taking Paxlovid isn’t enough as repeat test days later would help catch a rebound COVID-19 case. Thus, this new guideline is a quiet acknowledgment, he said.
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6) Also, I think the FDA also FINALLY realizing now that #Paxlovid rebound is a really common thing. And thus a negative test after taking Paxlovid isn’t enough. A repeat test days later would help catch a rebound #COVID19 case. Thus, this new guideline is a quiet acknowledgment. https://t.co/7KZCcAh00g
The WHN co-founder also cited US President Joe Biden's example who had a rebound of COVID-19 recently.
Dr Ding even mentioned that he had been long pointing out to COVID minimisers that Paxlovid rebound was real and not just 1-2% as FDA used to claim. According to him, at least 12% of Paxlovid users had a rebound positive COVID-19 case.
The Epidemiologist added that the CDC is now loosening COVID-19 rules and quarantine guidance when all hospitalsations and deaths are surging across the US. World Health Network's co-founder Eric Feigl-Ding took a swipe on CDC's latest recommendations after FDA asked people to at least two COVID-19 tests 48 hours apart.
He opined that CDC may have arrived at its recommendations of 5-day zero-test-exit rule due to lack of funding since US is out of pandemic funds, or corporate interests and he questioned 'if US has no money left for COVID?'
Ding emphasised that Rapid Anitgen Test (RAT) is not 100% precise, considering the scenarios if the tests are done too early or if a bad shallow swab is taken that doesn’t go deep enough.
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Earlier on 11 August, FDA released an advisory for people to take RAT at least two tests 48 hours apart. It added that who have no symptoms but believe they were exposed to the virus should take a minimum of three tests with each spaced 48 hours apart.
"When you perform an at-home COVID-19 antigen test, and you get a positive result, the results are typically accurate. However, if you perform an at-home COVID-19 antigen test, you could get a false negative result," the FDA said.
According to FDA, PCR tests generally detect the virus 95% of the time if someone is infected, while at-home tests, it detects at least 80% of the time.
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