Author: Brother Mao This article is reproduced under the authorization of Brother Mao’s Vision (ID: maogeshijue) on the official account.
At the beginning, when I was preparing to do the topic of nucleic acid detection, my friends around me advised me not to touch the topic. Everyone thought it was a minefield, which was thankless and could be blasted.
However, my thoughts are different from those of my friends. As an We Media with a little influence, I think I should have a sense of social responsibility.
Although no one in other We Media would like to touch this sensitive topic, I still can’t tolerate all kinds of low-level rumors flying all over the sky to influence the people’s restless mood.
When it comes to nucleic acid testing, what do you think of?
Nucleic acid counterfeiting? To make a fortune in a difficult country? The right to rain is in the hands of umbrella sellers, so the rain will never stop!
Anyway, my circle of friends and WeChat groups are full of similar descriptions. At first, I sneered at these information, because as long as I had basic common sense, it was enough to smash these rumors.
China is a socialist country,
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there has never been a case where capital can kidnap national policies, never!
No matter how powerful the capital is, even if it can collude with a few corrupt officials, the will of the capital is a cinder in front of the will of the party and the state whenever it is put on the stage.
As the epidemic situation is a major issue, only the government press conference is unblocked, and the mainstream media has no motivation and mechanism to make an active voice without authorization, leading to the absence of the mainstream media on this issue.
However, recently, the relevant topics have been fermenting out of control. Even in my WeChat group of some high-end people, some social elites, such as the chairman of a listed company, are also forwarding sensational articles about nucleic acid fraud, nucleic acid kidnapping and epidemic prevention policies. I think the situation is a little serious.
Recently, I have made a detailed investigation with the Health Commission, the CDC and the third-party nucleic acid institutions. Now I want to tell you the truth about nucleic acids that most people do not know.
one
Nucleic acid positive determination
First question: Can nucleic acid screening institutions decide to be positive by themselves?
No!
Nucleic acid positive was determined by the local health committee and the CDC!
Nucleic acid positive determination has a complete set of planned processes and procedures.
Briefly describe this process.
After sampling, the medical staff first sent the samples to the nucleic acid testing institution for mixed testing (10 samples in one tube). After the mixed testing was positive, the nucleic acid testing institution reported the results to the Health Commission and the CDC, and then the CDC sent special personnel to conduct separate sampling and single testing for the mixed testing personnel. This separate sampling and single testing is called re testing.
Please note that the re examination is generally in the charge of the laboratories of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in some places, the public hospitals report to the disease control departments after examination). At the same time, the nucleic acid testing institutions conduct the re examination of the mixed positive test by themselves. The re examination of this nucleic acid testing institution is to change the experimental space, change the sample guns, and change the people. The change of reagents from two manufacturers is done by two people at the same time (why this is done, we will explain later).
The retest results of nucleic acid testing institutions shall be finally compared with the results of separate sampling and retest of the CDC laboratory, and the final results shall be subject to the retest results of the CDC. If the retest results of the CDC are positive, it can be determined to be positive.
That is to say, the final positive determination is determined by the CDC laboratory according to the re examination of the individual sampling results, not by the nucleic acid testing agency.
How do you feel about this program?
Nucleic acid testing institutions have no meaning in falsifying the results!
The logic is very simple. Even if the nucleic acid testing institution intentionally counterfeits, it must let all the staff in all links of the CDC (sampling and testing) cooperate with the counterfeiting to succeed. What’s more, the Health Commission has strict supervision over nucleic acid testing institutions!
With so many links and so many people involved in counterfeiting, it is not only extremely risky, but also extremely costly. At present, the epidemic is the focus of attention of the whole people. How many people from the Health Commission to the CDC dare to take the world’s great disapproval to cooperate with nucleic acid testing institutions in counterfeiting?
Aren’t you afraid that you will end up with nothing?
Not only is fraud meaningless, but it also brings a series of troubles to itself. This trouble comes from the government’s supervision of nucleic acid testing institutions.
2 Institutional supervision
Second, does the local government supervise nucleic acid testing institutions?
This is available. And very strict.
Tell me about the local government’s supervision of nucleic acid. It is estimated that there are similar situations all over the country. The following regulatory provisions are a little boring, but we must take a careful look at them. This has a lot to do with the following content.
In order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of nucleic acid testing results, nucleic acid testing institutions (public medical institutions and third-party nucleic acid testing institutions) in the urban area of XX City are strictly supervised, checked and inspected.
First, strict inspection qualification access. Led by the Health Commission of XX City, the Clinical Test Center of XX City organized an expert team to supervise the access of each laboratory carrying out nucleic acid testing, strengthen the qualification assessment of technicians, and strictly register the access to ensure that the institutions and personnel entering meet the qualification requirements.
Second, strict inspection quality control. While carrying out the indoor quality control of the laboratory in a normal way, the clinical laboratory of XX Qing City conducts the indoor quality evaluation of the laboratory every month. At the same time, in large-scale nucleic acid screening, quality supervisors are assigned to each laboratory that undertakes testing tasks to supervise and guide its testing work throughout the process to ensure testing quality.
Third, multi sector collaborative supervision. In addition to the regular quality supervision organized by the district and county health administrative departments; The Market Supervision Bureau of XX City inspects the compliance of reagent procurement and price of each testing institution; The Audit Bureau of XX City will conduct a special audit on the purchase quantity, screening quantity and collection amount of raw materials and consumables of nucleic acid testing institutions.
Fourth, focus on strengthening the supervision of third-party testing institutions. In accordance with the Interim Measures for the Administration of Medical Laboratory and the Measures for the Administration of Large scale COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing Laboratories (for Trial Implementation) and other documents, the health administrative departments at the two levels in the urban area have been conducting high-pressure and regular inspections of third-party testing institutions, and regularly publish the list of qualified institutions; For laboratories with false negative, false positive, or even false test reports, we will strengthen supervision and handle them according to laws and regulations.
To sum up, the Health Commission will not only send special personnel to supervise nucleic acid testing institutions for a long time, but also regularly carry out various regular inspections. Even if the procedures do not conform to the specifications, they will be ordered to rectify.
three
false positive
Third, what is the case of false positives (positive in the initial examination and negative in the re examination) in epidemic prevention in various places?
Nucleic acid detection mainly depends on CT value. At present, CT value above 40 is negative, 35-40 is abnormal nucleic acid, and below 35 is positive.
The general procedure is as follows: when the nucleic acid institution has positive mixed test or abnormal nucleic acid, the person with positive mixed test shall be immediately notified to live at home for isolation according to the regulations, and the CDC shall take a separate sample for retest. Only when the CT value of retest is below 35 can the positive patient be confirmed – in this case, the positive patient will be taken away for isolation.
If the CT value is between 35 and 40, it will continue to be isolated at home, and it will be sampled again 24 hours later; If the CT value is above 40, the household isolation should be removed immediately.
But in reality, because Omikron is highly infectious, health committees around the country have set up a special team to pursue the sun. In order to seize the time with rapid production and virus transmission, positive results were found in the initial test (mixed test by nucleic acid testing institutions). In some areas, the positive chasing team directly took people away for isolation, and then the CDC took samples for re examination. After re examination, people were released after they were confirmed to be negative.
To tell the truth, there is no official document stipulating this operation, and people have a lot of opinions. After the initial test is positive and the retest is negative, the official did not give a detailed explanation to the people, leading to rumors and rumors.
Then, why is the initial test (nucleic acid testing agency) positive and the re test (CDC) negative?
There are two reasons for this.
Reason 1: In order to improve the early detection rate of nucleic acid, China has adjusted the reagent sensitivity to the extreme.
As long as 100 viruses (100 copies in technical terms) can be detected in a 1ml sample, there are billions of viruses (copies) in a sneeze of a mild patient. This pursuit of the ultimate detection rate leads to a little careless handling of positive samples, and a little pollution will lead to the pollution of the entire laboratory. A sample is a large area of positive.
Therefore, the nucleic acid testing laboratory process is also very strict, and the Health Commission is very strict about this.
Reason 2: The samples taken by nucleic acid may be contaminated during the whole process of sampling, storage and transportation, even if it is slightly contaminated, the samples will show positive test results.
However, separate sampling by CDC is another process and procedure, so when nucleic acid testing institutions are contaminated and cause false positives, CDC samples will show normal negative.
This is also the reason why nucleic acid testing institutions will conduct re testing at the same time according to complex procedures after the initial test is positive – that is, to detect whether there is pollution in a certain link, so as to ensure that the subsequent sample testing is correct.
4. Institutional fraud
Fourth, it is said on the Internet that 250 nucleic acid testing institutions nationwide have been investigated and punished for counterfeiting. What is the matter?
At that time, when I saw the news that 250 nucleic acid testing institutions across the country were investigated for counterfeiting, I felt puzzled. Unilateral counterfeiting by nucleic acid testing institutions was not only meaningless, but also could be investigated and punished by the Health Commission. Why did hundreds of nucleic acid testing institutions do such stupid things?
After a careful search, it was found that the so-called 250 nucleic acid testing institutions nationwide were investigated by the government for counterfeiting. All the news was released by We Media, and none of the official media reported it.
Then I made great efforts to trace the source of this information. Finally, I found that the source of this information was an incomplete statistics of China Singapore Jingwei. From June to July this year, several provinces, cities and autonomous regions screened nucleic acid testing institutions, and 250 nucleic acid testing institutions were ordered to rectify, and another 26 nucleic acid testing institutions were ordered to suspend their nucleic acid testing business.
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According to the relevant provisions of the Infectious Diseases Law of China, if the nucleic acid testing institution intentionally counterfeits, it will bear criminal responsibility and arrest people.
However, some We Media were irresponsible, exaggerating the technical order for rectification of nucleic acid testing institutions to the extent that 250 nucleic acid testing institutions were investigated for fraud, which caused widespread panic among the public.
By the way, at present, there are 12600 nucleic acid testing institutions participating in nucleic acid testing business in China, and 250 of them are only 2% of all nucleic acid testing institutions being ordered to rectify.
I heard another rumor before that a nucleic acid testing agency deliberately delayed reporting after the mixed test was positive, allowing positive patients 24 hours to spread in large areas, causing the epidemic situation in the whole city to get out of control.
As far as I know, the local government has specific provisions on the time of sample detection in the nucleic acid detection process. For a large area of mixed samples, the results are generally required to be provided within 12 hours. For samples collected at transportation nodes (trains, planes, bus stations), the results are required to be provided within 6 hours.
If the nucleic acid testing agency fails to produce the results within the specified time, well, the next step is to order rectification on the list.
In fact, even if the nucleic acid testing institution wants to delay, it is very difficult. Not only is there a time limit in the system, but the resident staff of the Health Commission stationed in the nucleic acid testing institution are still watching 24 hours, and the leaders of the Health Commission call dozens of times a day to urge——
Who can procrastinate? Who dares delay?
So what happened to the case that a few nucleic acid testing institutions have counterfeited before? As far as I know, there are three situations that lead to nucleic acid fraud:
First, the implementation of large-scale full staff nucleic acid in various parts of China started this year. In some regions, due to the hasty implementation of large-scale full staff nucleic acid, the management was not in place, causing confusion in the early stage of large-scale nucleic acid detection:
There was confusion to varying degrees in the process of sampling, transportation and testing. Some samples did not reach the laboratory of the nucleic acid testing agency. Because of the confusion, the laboratory directly issued a report, and finally found that the samples were still in the community sampling point.
Second, because of the rush to the battle, individual regions did not recheck the reports issued by nucleic acid testing institutions, which left room for individual nucleic acid testing institutions to forge.
However, due to the public’s doubts about nucleic acid testing, all regions have standardized the initial testing of nucleic acid testing institutions and the re testing procedures of CDC. Now the local health committee is very strict about the re inspection after the initial test is positive, which belongs to the high-voltage line, and no one dares to miss this key procedure.
3. When the first large-scale screening was conducted in many local organizations, it was very chaotic, and the government also lacked corresponding organizational experience.
At that time, the spread of the virus was not as fast as it is now, and the hiding period was also relatively long. The government leaders asked for three rounds in three days and three rounds in nine days, but the detection ability was not up to scratch. At the end of the three days, less than 50% of the staff were screened. All aspects of the pressure required that the inspection must be completed on the last day. The government pressed for the task amount, and the nucleic acid testing company took on the task amount. As a result, when the deadline came, many of them had not completed the inspection.
At that time, the government often had a shadow of the bow and snake. When more than ten cases appeared in a city, the whole staff began screening, so the vast majority of them were negative. In order to complete the task on time, the government agency operators also handed over tasks to their superiors and the city at a unified pace, and privately encouraged and guided them to upload the negative first, and then finished the work.
The testing company also had a fluke mentality. As a result, positive samples were detected in the remaining batch of samples. At this time, it was foolish to fail to report positive samples. At this time, the government was furious and became a fraud again, because the negative results had indeed been uploaded.
A person in charge of a nucleic acid testing enterprise told me about such a case: “The company once supported a large screening of all employees in a provincial capital city in the north. It was also the government’s pressure on the task. When the deadline came, a section chief of a district health committee frantically called to speed up the progress. It was also implied that there were few negative tubes. The remaining 1000 or 2000 tubes were uploaded according to the negative, and then continued to be tested.
After our people were uploading some of them, I called to ask about the progress. When I learned the news, I immediately stopped this behavior. God bless me. There was no positive in more than 1000 tubes uploaded, and there was a positive case in the last 800 tubes that were not uploaded. Otherwise, I would be in prison now.
At best, the delay is to be criticized, and it is a real fraud to pass on without inspection. We know that people in the system are bosses, know the rules in the system, and have a natural sensitivity to risks. Some people who do not know the system are in trouble. “
five
Check to make money
Fifth, nucleic acid testing institutions have made a lot of money through nucleic acid testing.
This is a fact, but only part of it.
Before 2021, nucleic acid testing really made a lot of money, but since 2022, the situation has changed fundamentally. There is no other reason – the government has no money.
Let’s take a western region as an example. The financial situation of this region should be above the middle level in the country, but the current situation of this above the middle level is not optimistic.
There are 40 districts and counties under the jurisdiction of the region. At present, more than half of the district and county finance has been entrusted by the region finance (no trusteeship will be declared bankrupt). Even the district and county finance without trusteeship is still struggling to support. What is the concept of hard support?
Let me tell you something like this. As far as I know, even the district and county finance without trusteeship even pays salaries to civil servants by selling government assets.
Let’s think about it. When the government finance has reached the point of selling assets to pay salaries to civil servants, how can it still pay a large amount of fees to nucleic acid testing institutions to make them make a lot of money?
So what did the local government do?
trilogy.
First, because all staff have more and more nucleic acid time, what should we do if we want to improve the detection capability of nucleic acid detection institutions, but we don’t have money to invest in public hospitals to expand the nucleic acid detection capability?
At this time, we talked with nucleic acid testing institutions and asked them to invest in fixed assets to build more laboratories, buy more testing equipment and add more professionals.
Second, keep down the cost of nucleic acid testing. In 2022, the price of nucleic acid test will be reduced 6 times. In 2021, the price of single test will be 120 yuan/person. After 6 price reductions, the current price will be 16 yuan. In 2021, the price of mixed test will be 35 yuan/person. After 6 price reductions, the current price will be 3.5 yuan/person.
3.5 yuan/person, 10 people in a tube is 35 yuan, of which 15 yuan should be allocated to the community nucleic acid sampling personnel, and only 20 yuan/tube was received by the nucleic acid testing agency, that is, 2 yuan/person.
The cost to be paid by the nucleic acid testing agency for each tube of 20 yuan includes 8 to 9 yuan for testing reagents, 2 to 3 yuan for labor, 2 to 3 yuan for depreciation of equipment, and 2 to 3 yuan for rent, water and electricity management. In this way, the gross profit of a tube is less than 5 yuan, which does not include the inspection fees for re inspection and re inspection, as well as financial expenses.
Third, because of the financial difficulties of the government, many nucleic acid testing fees are in arrears, and everyone knows how difficult it is to collect the arrears when the government is in financial difficulties. Therefore, huge advances come from bank loans, and financial interest costs are not small expenditures.
According to my personal understanding, nucleic acid testing institutions have really made a lot of money before 2022, so by 2022, the early profits will have to be taken out to overcome the difficulties, understand?
Now the public opinion is very loud about the nationalization of nucleic acid testing enterprises. In fact, there is no need to be so troublesome. The government department of nucleic acid business has full distribution rights, and can completely entrust all nucleic acid testing businesses to public hospitals.
However, in the current situation, the cost of public hospitals can not be controlled, and they are unwilling to undertake the task of nucleic acid detection by all staff.
Why?
Because the government only paid 2 yuan per person for the mixed test, which means that the third-party nucleic acid testing institutions can barely do it. The public hospitals do this at a loss. What’s more, the government also gives a white note for this loss.
By the way, many listed companies involved in nucleic acid business released financial reports this year, and their performance was very good, which also strengthened the public’s influence on nucleic acid testing enterprises to make a fortune.
In fact, most of these enterprises that publish financial statements with nucleic acid business sell nucleic acid reagents (not nucleic acid detection business), and many of the sales targets are overseas markets.
For example, Jiuan Medical’s nucleic acid reagents are mainly sold in the United States, accounting for more than 90% of its performance. China’s nucleic acid detection reagents have low price and good performance, and are very competitive in the global market.
There are also a few enterprises that have nucleic acid testing business, such as Jinyu Medicine. About 30% of the business income is from nucleic acid testing. However, this nucleic acid testing income is currently a receivable, which is simply a debt.
At present, no company in China can be listed by nucleic acid testing (the nucleic acid testing companies that have submitted listing applications are also unlikely). The reason is very simple. There are several conditions for listed companies;
1. If there is a future and potential for sustained growth, nucleic acid business obviously does not.
2. It is better to have scientific and technological innovation, and the technology content of nucleic acid business is not high.
3. The risk is not great. Under the high-pressure normalization inspection, the nucleic acid business often finds faults and rectifies. Especially at present, the nucleic acid testing institutions are in the forefront of public opinion, so the potential risk is great.
six
Although thousands of people have gone
The above is the fact and truth of nucleic acid testing. The government should have come forward to explain the relevant procedures and regulations to the public, but for various reasons, the government has great concerns, so the government has been slow to disclose the relevant nucleic acid testing procedures and specifications to the public.
Now I have a copy of the official “Popular Science: Issues Concerned by Everyone in Epidemic Prevention and Control – Can Nucleic Acid Screening Institutions Decide to Be Positive by Themselves?” prepared by the local government after the rumors of nucleic acid fraud appeared in their jurisdiction.
It’s a good popular science article, but the relevant leaders have many worries. In front of the surging public opinion, the relevant leaders finally denied the release of this article, which is amazing.
The current public opinion field of the epidemic is completely occupied by various fantastic rumors.
Taking a city as an example, the rumor of nucleic acid counterfeiting in an LZ Park has fermented to a serious negative impact on the public mood. Even a considerable number of people do not believe the official nucleic acid results because of this rumor. After a large number of positive mixed tubes appear in some communities, the residents of the communities all resist doing nucleic acid — they can not know who is positive without retesting nucleic acid, and they can not be isolated.
According to my understanding, the conditions of some shelter hospitals are really bad.
The shelter air is filled with stinky feet, sweat and other odors. At night, the snoring sound is like thunder. The quilt is either moldy or smelly. Thousands of people have only a few toilet pits, which makes the toilet dirty. Many people are more afraid of being isolated from the shelter than being infected with viruses.
I can understand that the epidemic situation is so serious that there is a shortage of staff everywhere. However, shelter hospitals are an important part of the epidemic control. If these poor conditions in shelter hospitals are not improved, it will bring more difficulties to epidemic prevention.
According to the latest news, through relevant channels, I learned that the local government has comprehensively rectified the infrastructure and conditions of the hospital.
The field of public opinion is like a battlefield. If the official concerns are not actively clarified, the field of public opinion will be occupied by the western navy forces with ulterior motives.
As far as my personal observation is concerned, there are signs that the field of public opinion is out of control. The zeroers have been beaten back, and the coexistence group has gained the absolute upper hand.
Under the influence of such public opinion, the folk mood is becoming more and more restless. However, the folk state in areas under temporary control has become a pressure cooker that is about to boil.
I know very well that few people are willing to read such rational articles now. Most people are influenced by extreme emotions. I try to explain the national policies in some WeChat groups and I am directly blamed when I speak——
Others are too lazy to listen to you. But I still want to speak out publicly and do my bit to smash some absurd rumors. Today’s stability is hard won. I don’t want it to be destroyed.
Well, let the storm of abuse come more fiercely!
Although thousands of people have gone!
This article is reproduced with the authorization of official account Maoge’s Vision (ID: maogeshijue).