Chat message

Slack / Private Message Drop, p.1009 [SLACK_001223] · slack_pm:msg:10532

Date: 2021-09-29 04:51
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Robert F. Garry, Edward C. Holmes
speaker: Andrew Rambaut
Topics: Testing and surveillance

Recipients on this medium are inferred from channel membership, not per-message addressing.

Anyway - you said before that this was for equipment? I think Sanjay or whoever misunderstands that a 'PCR test' isbasically reagents.

Extracted statements

Rule-extracted, not adjudicated. The grade says what may be done with each one; read the document above before relying on any of them.

Statement	Grade	Attribution	Stance
I think Sanjay or whoever misunderstands that a 'PCR test' isbasically reagents.	needs context	uncertain explicit hedge	asserts

Statement

Grade

Attribution

Stance

I think Sanjay or whoever misunderstands that a 'PCR test' isbasically reagents.

needs context

uncertain explicit hedge

asserts

In context

A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.

2021-09-29 04:36 Robert F. Garry open

>> Over 2019 the number of procurement contracts for the test is required for COVID-19 - the PCR test -- suggests the virus was highly likely to be spreading virulently in Wuhan, China as early as the summer of 2019. >> The total spent on PCR test systems in Hubei province increased from 2015 to 2018, but a dramatic increase was witnessed in 2019: 10.1M Yuan (2015); 19.1M Yuan (2016); 29.1M Yuan (2017); 36.7M Yuan (2018); and 67.4M Yuan (2019). The total 2019 contract value is higher than the sum of the previous two years. >> These are the Chinese groups that made the significant and abnormal purchases of PCR equipment in 2019: Wuhan by the People's Liberation Army Airborne Army Hospital (May 2019), The Wuhan Institute of Virology (Nov 2019), the Wuhan University of Science and Technology (Oct 2019) and the Hubei Province Districts Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (May-Dec 2019). October was the month that saw the most total PCR purchases. >> The researchers collected 1716 PCR procurement contracts from 2007 to the end of 2019 in Hubei province. And by comparison the monthly average of PCR purchases in other provinces didn't dramatically rise in 2019, per the study.
2021-09-29 04:47 Andrew Rambaut open

You definitely don't use PCR for anything but COVID
2021-09-29 04:47 Robert F. Garry open

The whole thing is rather fishy though. What does "procurement contracts for the test" mean?
2021-09-29 04:50 Andrew Rambaut open

By the way - your graph has the y axis in Yaun x 10-6 which isn't really that much money :wink:
2021-09-29 04:51 Andrew Rambaut

Anyway - you said before that this was for equipment? I think Sanjay or whoever misunderstands that a 'PCR test' isbasically reagents.
2021-09-29 04:52 Andrew Rambaut open

The 2019 figure is basically $1M
2021-09-29 04:56 Andrew Rambaut open

If you were setting up a big genomic surveillance lab you could spend that much on machines quite easily
2021-09-29 04:58 Andrew Rambaut open

The UK spent £22B on setting up the COVID testing system.
2021-09-29 04:59 Andrew Rambaut open

Obviously if there was any documentary evidence they were ordering PCR primers for SARS-like coronavirus that would be a game changer

Full conversation →