Emergency Exit at English Heritage
12 July 2025
by Mike Wells
News Round-Up
13 July 2025
by Will Jones
The data continues to unfold exactly in line with a 0.17% false positive rate for the PCR test. Here's the chart. To recap: The definition of "false positive" is important to clarify. One type of false positive would involve detection of not only SARS-CoV-2 but other coronaviruses as well. Perhaps someone who has carefully studied the PCR primers and range of extant human coronavirus sequences could judge how likely this is to occur. A second type of false positive would be the detection of non-infectious viral fragments that can remain in one's respiratory passages for two-three months after the infection has been eliminated by the immune system. However, the class of false positives most people talk about entails contamination of PCR reactions with trace amounts of viral material – which in PCR labs almost always comes from previous reaction products. The PCR assay works by amplifying a few copies of virus molecules by millions or billions of fold, so it is pretty much impossible to completely avoid having some reaction products escape and contaminate the laboratory or some of the utilised reagents. These then get into, and become amplified in, subsequent test samples, causing false positive results. So let us call these "contamination positives". Since the PCR assays are performed in different laboratories in many places, contamination positives would cause ...
Saint Jacinda Postpones General Election The Toothy Tyrant has postponed the General Election Remember the outrage on the liberal left last month after Trump raised the possibility of postponing the November election? This was treated as the last word in undemocratic, populist demagoguery. How dare he?!? Well, Jacinda Arden has done precisely that – postponed the New Zealand General Election from September 19th to October 17th. The BBC has more. Ms Ardern said on Monday that the new date would allow parties "to plan around the range of circumstances we will be campaigning under".Earlier this week, the country's largest city went back into lockdown."This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead," Ms Ardern said, adding that she had "absolutely no intention" of allowing any further delays to the vote.The opposition National Party has argued the election should be delayed as restrictions on campaigning mean Ms Ardern had an unfair advantage.Restrictions were imposed on Auckland on Wednesday after a number of new infections were identified in the city.Nine new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of active cases linked to the Auckland cluster to 58.The outbreak was initially traced back to members of one family, although Ms Ardern later said that ...
© Skeptics Ltd.