Los Angeles Unified School District will require mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing for all students, employees despite vaccination status



The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Thursday that it will require all students and employees returning for in-person learning to be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.

The district is the second-largest school district in the country.

What are the details?

On Thursday, KTLA-TV reported that all returning students and employees will be subjected to ongoing, weekly COVID-19 testing whether or not they have been vaccinated.

In a statement, Interim Superintendent Megan K. Kelly said, "This is in accordance with the most recent guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health."

Baseline testing for students returning to campus begins Monday, she added, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The district previously stated that fully vaccinated students and employees would not be required to test for the coronavirus, the outlet reported, but rescinded the plan earlier this month.

"In addition to regular testing, safety measures will include: masking for all students, staff, and visitors; maximizing physical distancing as much as possible; continuing comprehensive sanitizing efforts, including frequent hand-washing; upgraded air filtration systems; and collaborating with health partners and agencies to support free COVID-19 vaccination," the statement added.

The district's statement continued, "Ultimately, the greatest protection against COVID and the Delta variant is vaccination. We encourage everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated."

The district's website instructed students and employees on how to schedule their weekly, ongoing COVID-19 tests.

The site told users:

Los Angeles Unified is providing COVID testing for all students and staff. All students and employees, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, returning for in-person instruction must participate in baseline and ongoing weekly COVID testing. This is in accordance with the most recent guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Baseline testing begins on Monday, August 2.In addition to these sites, mobile COVID-19 testing teams will be visiting your local school each week of baseline testing. Contact your school's principal for information about dates.Tests are free, quick, easy, and your personal information will remain confidential!

Of the testing process, the site added:

Once you make an appointment, you will receive a confirmation email with appointment details. Testing will take place at an LA Unified site. Your confidential test result will be emailed to you following the test. All the information will be kept in a separate, secure database and only shared with the appropriate scientists, administrators and health authorities.

Following the announcement, teachers union President Cecily Myart-Cruz said, "Vaccines are like seatbelts: necessary but not invincible. Just like we need seatbelts, airbags, and speed limits, we need masks, ventilation, and testing to keep school communities safe."

What else?

Earlier this month, Deadline reported that the state of California would require masking in all school settings.

Families, the Times reports, have the option of choosing distance learning over in-person learning, but officials state that the "best learning takes place in a classroom."

Families have until Friday to opt into online distance learning. Those who do not will automatically be assigned to learn in person.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's fall semester begins Aug. 16 with in-person instruction.

CDC quietly updates guidance to state that fully vaccinated people should still get tested if exposed to COVID-19 even if they don't have symptoms



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly updated its guidelines regarding fully vaccinated people getting tested following COVID-19 exposures, according to a Thursday Insider report.

Before this week, the report noted, the CDC "maintained that fully vaccinated people did not need to get tested for COVID-19, unless they developed symptoms."

During July 8 White House briefing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that the organization saw no reason to "test for those who are asymptomatic."

What are the details?

The CDC, citing new data showing that vaccinated people may be able to transmit the COVID-19 Delta variant as easily as those people who are unvaccinated, is now urging people who have been in close contact with a COVID-19 patient to get tested three to five days after exposure in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

On Tuesday, the outlet reported, the CDC quietly released the newly updated guidelines.

During a Tuesday press call, Walensky said, "Some vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to others. This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations."

The new guidelines read, "If you've been around someone who has COVID-19, you should get tested 3-5 days after your exposure, even if you don't have symptoms. You should also wear a mask indoors in public for 14 days following exposure or until your test result is negative. You should isolate for 10 days if your test result is positive."

Walensky in a Thursday New York Times report was quoted as saying that the updated guidance "recommends vaccinated people get tested upon exposure regardless of symptoms."

"Testing is widely available," she added.

The report added, "If the results come back negative, they can stop wearing masks indoors. If the results are positive, the infected should isolate at home for 10 days."

Horowitz: CDC issues guidance for evaluating post-vaccination COVID tests at a lower standard



We've watched throughout the country as entire families are forced into quarantine because one classmate of a child tests positive for the virus without exhibiting any symptoms. Lives destroyed without any due process or evidentiary standards that they are even infected.

Last August, the New York Times reported that so many PCR tests were netting false positives because they used more than 30 cycle thresholds (CTs) of amplification, often as many as 40-45 before finding a positive culture. To this day, the CDC has refused to change its guidance on the use of high CTs in determining positive results, needlessly forcing so many people, particularly asymptomatic children, into quarantine for no reason. Well, now the agency has finally changed its guidance — but only when it suits cronies.

In a notice on its "COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough case investigation," the CDC announced its plan to study the prevalence of "breakthrough cases," meaning those who contract the virus even after having been vaccinated. Yesterday, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson noticed this little gem in the guidance for determining those infected post-vaccination: "Clinical specimens for sequencing should have an RT-PCR Ct value ≤28."

Alas, the CDC has suddenly discovered the power of cycle thresholds on PCR testing in determining whether the positive results are real or meaningful. But here's the problem: Where is this guidance when it comes to non-vaccinated people? As Berenson points out, a standard of 28 CTs applied to the general testing regime would preclude as many as 90% of cases from being recorded, especially when the virus is in low circulation.

Wow. WOW. @cdcgov only wants to examine post-vaccine infections with a PCR threshold of 28 or under.That standard… https://t.co/PUGSeS99pm

— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) 1619716838.0

Almost eight months ago, the New York Times reported that cultures detected in 27 to 34 CTs seldom reveal any live virus, and specimens detected above 34 CTs never show any live virus. Most research shows that any virus that is detected only through a CT level above 25, and certainly above 30, is very likely to be a false or meaningless positive. This is why a Portuguese judge recently ruled that any positive test that used more than 25 cycle thresholds is not reliable and cannot be used to force quarantine.

Each cycle threshold doubles the level of amplification of the previous CT. Thus, a CT of 40 is 1,024 times the amplification of a CT level of 30 (210 =1,024) and 32,768 times that of a CT of 25 (215=32,768). Clearly, not all positive results are equal, and knowing the CT level of your positive result is of utmost importance.

Thus, the CDC is correct in not wanting false positives to work against the reputation of the vaccines, but why is it OK for false positives to work against the livelihood of Americans? Why is it that only when it comes to the reputation of the vaccines do they suddenly discover the science of false positives? Based on the current CDC standard, the entire contact tracing regime, even to the extent one maniacally believes they can trace a virus that 40% of the country already contracted, should be overhauled.

Just how destructive is the problem of false positives? Biostatistician Jon Deeks posted data from Public Health England showing that as many as 62% of the positives among British schoolchildren in recent weeks were false.

The 1st 2 weeks of school testing did find MORE FALSE POSITIVES than TRUE POSITIVES - data are finally public.Pro… https://t.co/FsaYS5HkjS

— Jon Deeks 💙 (@deeksj) 1619691750.0

The problem is especially acute in a place like England, where the virus is nearly extinct, and among children, who contract the virus less often. However, in most places in the United States, the virus is also circulating at a very low level. Yet if this testing regime continues, the forced isolation without due process will continue indefinitely.

Think about this absurd evil that is being perpetrated upon our children: They are needlessly tested for a virus that doesn't affect them, with a faulty test that will scare them into getting an experimental vaccine they don't need, whose efficacy is then measured against a much less sensitive test. It's all in the science!

It's also amusing to watch the government finally discover science in order to bolster public confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccines, while refusing to recognize all the data on the efficacy of natural immunity against reinfection. A recent study of 6.3 million Israelis showed that the estimated protection for those already infected was 94.8% from reinfection and 96.4% from severe illness, as compared to effectiveness of 92.8% and 94.4%, respectively, from the vaccines. There was just one death in the entire country from someone who supposedly already had the virus, and he was over 80 years old.

The authors conclude that their research "puts into question the need to vaccinate recent (up to six month) previously-infected individuals." They do qualify their statement with the nuance of "recent" previously infected because we don't have data on the virus for long-term immunity. However, that is true of the vaccine as well. At lease for prior infection, we have studies showing that those with SARS1 infections who never even contracted SARS-CoV-2 seem to be immune 17 years later.

This research coming from Israel is very telling, because Israel is probably the most hawkish country on vaccines. Still, they are willing to publish academic literature playing up natural immunity and showing that there is no need for those with natural immunity to take a risk on experimental vaccines. Our government refuses to recognize the existence of immunity from prior infection in any shape or form.

It's truly shocking how our politicians will do everything in their power to play up the vaccines and downplay natural immunity; to ratchet up the cycle thresholds for those getting the virus without the vaccine, while ratchetting them down for those already vaccinated. They all like to say they are following the science, but in reality, they are following the money and the power.

Horowitz: Florida leads nation in pushing accuracy and transparency of COVID-19 testing



Which state will provide Americans as much transparency and due process as Portugal does before forcibly locking them down? It appears that Florida is leading the way in bringing sunlight to the process of PCR testing, which is being used as the formative tool inducing forced quarantines.

It's been nearly three months since the New York Times discovered that a large percentage of the positive tests being reported in this country are only at trace levels and are not infectious. The paper reported that most labs were using 35-40 RNA amplifications, known as "cycle thresholds" (CTs), in order to detect traces of the virus. Most research shows that any virus that is captured only through a CT level above 25, and certainly above 30, is very likely to be a false or meaningless positive. This is why a Portuguese judge recently ruled that any positive test that used more than 25 cycle thresholds is not reliable and cannot be used to force quarantine.

Each cycle threshold doubles the level of amplification of the previous CT. Thus, a CT of 40 is 1,024 times the amplification of a CT level of 30 (210 =1,024) and 32,768 times that of a CT of 25 (215=32,768). Clearly, not all positive results are equal, and knowing the CT level of your positive result is of utmost importance. A friend of mine had her daughter forcibly removed from school for two weeks because my friend tested positive with no symptoms when she gave birth in the hospital. Shouldn't she know if her case is really at a level that can be cultured as a live infection or not? If not, not only was her daughter's life gratuitously disrupted, but all her friends were needlessly locked down too.

Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Florida appears to be the first state that will begin quantifying CT levels and possibly adjusting policy based on the results. On Dec. 4, Florida became the first state to mandate that testing labs report the cycle thresholds of each COVID test.

"All positive, negative and indeterminate COVID-19 laboratory results must be reported to FDOH via electronic laboratory reporting or by fax immediately," ordered the Florida Department of Health in a new memorandum to testing centers first posted online by the Alachua Chronicle. "This includes all COVID-19 test types – polymerase chain reaction (PCR), other RNA, antigen and antibody results. Cycle threshold (CT) values and their reference ranges, as applicable, must be reported by laboratories to FDOH via electronic laboratory reporting or by fax immediately."

It's unclear at this point whether the DeSantis administration plans to change quarantine policies based on the disclosure of CT values, but the first step toward readjusting those policies is to gather such information. Knowing what percentage of positive cases are detected only at levels that are likely dead viral RNA is a vital tool in tracking the epidemiological trends of the virus.

The enormity of consequence from such a decision cannot be overstated. A recent analysis of 29 existing studies conducted by Oxford University researchers found that "the evidence is increasingly pointing to the probability of culturing live virus being related to the amount of viral RNA in the specimen and, therefore, inversely related to the cycle threshold." They observed two published studies that showed "the odds of live virus culture reduced by approximately 33% for every one unit increase in Ct."

This is why they concluded that given that "complete live viruses are necessary for transmission, not the fragments identified by PCR," it's advisable that accurate CT levels coupled with actual symptoms in the patient "should be used to define the reliability of PCR for assessing infectious potential." On the other hand, they concluded that positive results from those "with high cycle threshold are unlikely to have infectious potential."

Consider all the children who often don't have any symptoms but test positive and are taken out of school. Now, consider all those who are supposedly exposed to that asymptomatic child who are taken out of school for two weeks. Shouldn't we try to determine whether those children actually have infectious potential, especially when we have found very little spread from children in school?

The consequences of unscientific quarantine of children are devastating. According to the Washington Post, failure rates in math and English among low-income household children in Montgomery County, Maryland, rose sixfold this year. In St. Paul, Minnesota, nearly 40% of high school students have received failing grades so far this year. Yet, Maryland Governor "Lockdown" Larry Hogan and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz continue to ignore the science about CT levels in testing and the lack of spread among children.

If every state were to track cycle thresholds, we would actually be able to better target the quarantine and contact tracing (to the extent it's even constitutional) to those who actually have live infectious potential. We'd also be able to determine once and for all if there is meaningful spread among asymptomatic individuals.

Why would we continue to indiscriminately lock down an entire society and chase our tail tracing a virus with millions of positive cases that aren't really infectious? That strategy hasn't worked in containing the virus and has only worked to destroy our lives. Then again, this was never about following the science. This was always about control. And the more the public is in the dark about what is and is not a danger for spreading the virus, the more the politicians can categorically shut us down.