The Infectious Myth

The Infectious Myth - Simplifying RT-PCR

Following the very deep discussion with Stephen Bustin in Episode 251, David goes back over the same ground, hopefully in a way that simplifies everything and will enable you to get a better understanding of RT-PCR, and it’s application to coronavirus testing. He starts by describing RNA, including the fact that it is found in every living cell, not just viruses, then the extraction of RNA, the conversion of RNA to complementary DNA using Reverse Transcriptase enzyme, and then the PCR process used to approximately double the DNA at even step, until the Cycle Threshold is reached. And the Cycle Threshold is one of the big problems of RT-PCR testing for coronavirus.

 

Some of these thoughts are also in written form at: https://theinfectiousmyth.com/coronavirus/RT-PCR_Test_Issues.php

The Infectious Myth - Stephen Bustin on Challenges with RT-PCR

RT-PCR is the main method for declaring that someone is COVID-19 infected or not, as well as having numerous other uses in molecular biology research and biological testing. Professor Stephen Bustin is a world expert on the technology, and the potential problems with using it to produce accurate and repeatable results. Although the coronavirus test is presented as a binary test, it is actually based on whether the production of DNA is detectable prior to an arbitrary number of PCR cycles. If there is variability in the quantification, then samples will be above or below the limit, when they should not be, resulting in false positives and negatives. David and Stephen walk through the steps, from the extraction of RNA from the original sample, the conversion of the RNA to complementary DNA, and duplication of DNA using PCR, and the optional step of sequencing. While this is dense technical information at times, it is presented logically, and the limitations of this method cannot be understood without taking the cover off the black box. We suggest not listening to this episode when you are trying to do anything else, but sit down in a quiet place so that you can concentrate fully.

 

Stephen Bustin’s detailed 2017 paper is here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eci.12801 

 

More information about his work is here: https://aru.ac.uk/people/stephen-bustin

The Infectious Myth - Retired Nurse Kevin Corbett on HIV, AIDS and Coronavirus

Kevin Corbett is a nurse whose career has spanned from the AIDS era to the Coronavirus era. In this discussion he draws parallels between the two panic-filled eras. Although AIDS was focussed on sex, there was also a fear of touching AIDS patients. Kevin worked in a ward associated with Princess Diana who broke taboos by touching and kissing patients. Now we are scared of coughs and fevers and other normal respiratory happenings, and due to the fear of infection, aggressively treating people with, for example, intubation. 

 

David and Kevin have written a paper together on the UK situation at: https://theinfectiousmyth.com/coronavirus/ProblemsUKLockdownCorbettCrowe.pdf   

 

You can find out about Kevin’s other life as an artisst, and contact him, at: http://www.kevinpcorbett.com 

 

The Infectious Myth - David Rasnick on the Coronavirus

David Rasnick and David Crowe (who have to call themselves ‘Raz’ and ‘Crowe’ to avoid confusion) discuss the coronavirus, particularly the RT-PCR testing. Raz is a PhD in chemistry who worked on protease inhibitors (being used in coronavirus, although the Chinese trial was an admitted failure). The test is really important because without it there wouldn’t be any Covid-19 cases, so they spend a lot of time discussing it. They also discuss confusion with other diseases, reasons not to shut down the economy, probable exaggeration of the mortality rate, dangerous treatments, the politics, and more.

 

For David’s detailed analysis of Coronavirus see: http://theinfectiousmyth.com/book/CoronavirusPanic.pdf

The Infectious Myth - Jenn Smith and Orwellian Transgender Court Case

Jenn Smith, a transgender identifying male, returns to the show to discuss a court case over a transgender-identifying natal female, in which the father’s right to refuse medical treatment on her behalf has been blocked. This is not so unusual, sadly, but in this case the judge is also ordering the father to refer to his daughter only with male words, and is trying to block him from communicating with the press, even when the name of his daughter is protected. Jenn Smith is not only a journalist, speaker and activist, but has also been hit with court orders due to their reporting on this issue. He reports how he informed the judge that one of the reasons why so many people were breaking the court ordered silence, was lack of respect for a court that was trying to force people to speak a lie.

 

Find out more about Jenn Smith’s activism and journalism at: http://jennsmith.ca

The Infectious Myth - Coronavirus with James Lyons-Weiler

David discusses the coronavirus epidemic with James Lyons-Weiler. While our guest believes that there is a deadly infectious virus, David does not. At the end, the issue of whether there is a new virus circulating, and whether it has ever been purified, is unresolved.

 

You can find more about James’ work at: https://jameslyonsweiler.com

The Infectious Myth - David tackles the Coronavirus Panic

David provides his analysis of the coronavirus panic. He does not believe that the coronavirus test is accurate, and the coronavirus has never been proven to exist, so the tests may be completely meaningless. He discusses some of the research, shows that it is not scientific, and describes some of the many anomalies regarding coronavirus testing, and the theory that the epidemic is real and infectious. 

 

A written version of this show is at: http://theinfectiousmyth.com/book/CoronavirusPanic.pdf

 

The Infectious Myth - Peter Schryvers on Bad Data

David Crowe discusses Peter Schryvers new book “Bad Data” with the author. It describes some of the many ways that numbers are used in our society, from measuring the performance of children in school with tests, or trying to quantify the safety of a highway. While numbers can be useful, they can also lead to completely counter-productive, and often counter-intuitive outcomes, and there are some fascinating stories in the book that illustrates this. Many of the topics David has covered on this show are subject to measurement. We haven’t covered education a lot, but certainly medicine, justice and politics are subject to massive amounts of measurements and analysis, sometimes ignoring reality for the magical power of the numbers.

The Infectious Myth - Gregory Brown on Biological Males in Women’s Sports

Gregory Brown is a Professor of Exercise Science who recently submitted an expert report on the impact of biological males, such as transgender women, in female sports. Some differences are obviously simply by looking at elite male athletes, who have significantly more musculature, are taller, and have stronger and larger skeletons than women. Others are less obvious, such as the wider hip structure of women, great oxygen carrying capacity of the blood in women. Depending on the type of sport, men have a 10% to 30% advantage over women. As women’s sports have become better funded, leading to equitable training between men and women, the significant differences between men and women have stabilized. Transgender women in female sports will destroy the motivation of women to participate in sports, knowing that at any time a second rate male athlete can simply declare that they feel like a woman, and win races. Greg Brown and David also discuss how the evidence is mounting that even lengthy hormone treatments does very little to erase the biological advantage that males build up through puberty.

 

The Infectious Myth - Gender Self-ID and Prisons with Heather Mason

Heather Mason learned about biological males being assigned to women’s prisons in Canada by being sentenced to one, on drug charges, and experiencing the problems this causes directly. After getting out for the last time, and kicking her drug habit, she became a voice for incarcerated women in Canada, particularly on the issue of gender Self ID. David and Heather talk about these situations, that these biological males are still sexually attracted to women, that they harass women, that sex reassignment surgery does not modify the personality. Heather also notes that women are often given training in how to be more assertive and to set boundaries around themselves, while biological males (regardless of gender identity) need training in how to be less assertive and aggressive. But in a women’s prison, biological males get the training designed for biological females.

 

Heather is one of the founding members of  Canadian Women’s Sex Based Rights: https://www.cawsbar.ca