{"id":278120,"date":"2023-09-10T14:18:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T12:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278120"},"modified":"2023-09-10T14:18:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T12:18:54","slug":"the-original-asymptomatic-spreader-was-not-asymptomatic-she-took-paracetamol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278120","title":{"rendered":"The Original \u2018Asymptomatic Spreader\u2019 Was Not Asymptomatic: She Took Paracetamol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0ROBERT KOGON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As flagged by Will Jones here on the Daily Sceptic<\/em><\/a>, a recent Lancet<\/em> study shows that asymptomatic people are only responsible for a small fraction of SARS-CoV-2 viral emissions, thus exploding the myth of extensive asymptomatic transmission, which was one of the central tenets of the COVID-19 response. But what about the original \u2018asymptomatic spreader\u2019 whose case was widely reported in the medical literature and the international media? Well, it turns out she was precisely not<\/em> asymptomatic. She was sick and took medication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 30th<\/sup>\u00a02020, the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>\u00a0published a letter from a group of German doctors and scientists documenting the case of a Chinese businesswoman from Shanghai who had recently travelled to Germany, where she was at the origin of Germany\u2019s first cluster of infections despite the fact that she had not yet developed symptoms herself. See the below screen shot from the NEJM homepage circa the following day (courtesy of the\u00a0Wayback Machine<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The lead author of the letter was Camilla Rothe of the Munich University Hospital. One of the co-authors was none other than Christian Drosten, the Chair of the Department of Virology at the Charit\u00e9<\/em> teaching hospital in Berlin, whose famous PCR-protocol would become the \u2018gold standard\u2019 for COVID-19 testing. Drosten\u2019s article laying out the PCR protocol was published just one week earlier, on January 23rd<\/sup>, by the EU-funded journal Eurosurveillance<\/em>, following a peer-review in record-breaking time<\/a> of roughly 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the problem with the German researchers\u2019 letter is that just four days later, on February 3rd, Science<\/em> published an article revealing, based on official German sources, that the Chinese businesswoman did in fact have symptoms and had taken paracetamol to combat them. In fact, none of the 17 authors of the NEJM<\/em> letter had ever even spoken to the supposedly asymptomatic \u2018patient zero\u2019, merely relying on the input of the four Germans who fell ill (and, incidentally, very quickly got better).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfterwards, however,\u201d the Science<\/em> article notes, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

officials at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany\u2019s federal public health agency, and the Health and Food Safety Authority of the state of Bavaria did talk to the Shanghai patient on the phone, and it turned out she did have symptoms while in Germany. According to people familiar with the call, she felt tired, suffered from muscle pain, and took paracetamol, a fever-lowering medication. (An RKI spokesperson would only confirm to Science<\/em> that the woman had symptoms.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As will be seen momentarily, the authors have in the meanwhile themselves confirmed that the woman took paracetamol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contacted by Science<\/em>, Christian Drosten, who reportedly himself conducted the PCR-testing for the German group, was contrite. \u201cI feel bad about how this went, but I don\u2019t think anybody is at fault here,\u201d he said, \u201cApparently the woman could not be reached at first and people felt this had to be communicated quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Swedish Public Health Agency, as cited by Science<\/em>, was less charitable in its assessment, describing the NEJM<\/em> letter as containing \u201cmajor flaws and errors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, despite the criticism and the apparent contrition of Drosten and one other author who was also contacted, the NEJM<\/em> letter has not been retracted. It remains on the NEJM<\/em> website here<\/a> with the original full title: \u2018Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany.\u2019 As of this writing, according to the NEJM<\/em>\u2019s own count, it has been cited in the scholarly literature no less than 2527 times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article is not even accompanied by a correction. In the aftermath of the Science<\/em> revelations, the authors merely added a supplementary appendix<\/a> comprising a \u201ctimeline\u201d of the evolution of the woman\u2019s illness. Apparently, in the meanwhile, they had resolved to speak with the woman themselves. The \u201ctimeline\u201d concedes that she had experienced symptoms in Germany and that she had taken paracetamol, but insists that she only reported doing so once and somehow prophylactically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute, apparently being caught off-guard by the Science<\/em> revelations, displayed similarly erratic behaviour in response. Whereas a spokesperson initially told Science<\/em> that the RKI itself had sent a letter to the NEJM<\/em> informing the journal of the authors\u2019 error, a different spokesperson, as noted in a July update to the article, subsequently retracted this claim, saying that the letter \u201chad never been sent\u201d and that there had been \u201can internal misunderstanding\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the asymptomatic \u2018patient zero\u2019 turned out in fact to be symptomatic, the German Government, at any rate, has not wavered in its support for Rothe and her colleagues. Thus, on September 30th 2022, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded the German Order of Merit to none other than Claudia Rothe precisely\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0her\u00a0NEJM<\/em>\u00a0article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Claudia Rothe being awarded the Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (source:\u00a0<\/em>LMUKlinikum<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The tribute read out at the ceremony<\/a> explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

On January 27th 2020, the doctor [Rothe] diagnosed the first Corona infection in Germany. In doing so, she realised that the source of the infection was a person who at that time did not have any symptoms. She promptly published this discovery\u2026 The publication triggered a worldwide scientific dispute, at the end of which her findings were confirmed. Her early warning and her courage to stand by her finding made an important contribution to containing the Corona pandemic in the first phase. (author\u2019s translation)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The identity of the Chinese \u2018patient zero\u2019 and of her German colleagues is also of some interest. They were in fact all employees of the German auto parts manufacturer Webasto<\/a>. Although the Chinese employee was reported to be from Shanghai, Webasto had just recently, on September 7th 2019, opened a production facility in Wuhan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As discussed in my earlier article<\/a>, none other than then German Chancellor Angela Merkel was visiting Wuhan on that very day. In Wuhan, she stopped by the Tongji-Medical-College-affiliated Tongji Hospital: Tongji Medical College is the Chinese co-sponsor of a joint German-Chinese virology lab located in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chancellor Merkel was also on hand for the ceremonial opening of Webasto\u2019s new facility, as documented in the below photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(Source:\u00a0<\/span>Webasto<\/a>)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Robert Kogon\u00a0is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his\u00a0Substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 30th\u00a02020, the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine\u00a0published a letter from a group of German doctors and scientists documenting the case of a Chinese businesswoman from Shanghai who had recently travelled to Germany, where she was at the origin of Germany\u2019s first cluster of infections despite the fact that she had not yet developed symptoms herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":278129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822470,691818051,691822471,691819379,691820151,691818916],"class_list":{"0":"post-278120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-asymptomatic-spread","9":"tag-germany","10":"tag-nejm","11":"tag-propaganda","12":"tag-the-science","13":"tag-wuhan","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0Paracetamol-skeletal.png?fit=1600%2C871&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1alO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":279040,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279040","url_meta":{"origin":278120,"position":0},"title":"Germany\u2019s First Covid Patient in February 2020: \u201cMy Health is Great. In Fact, I Was Never Doing Poorly\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"16\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I told\u00a0the story of Germany\u2019s COVID-19 \u2018patient zero\u2019: a Chinese employee of the German auto parts maker Webasto who is supposed to have infected a colleague while on a business trip to Germany despite being \u201casymptomatic\u201d. 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