Dr. Bostom Blasts Raimondo’s Call for Mass Testing

Call for Mass Asymptomatic Testing Not Evidence-Based

Dr. Andrew Bostom Appointed to Center’s Board of Adjunct Scholars

Providence, RI – The dubious public call by Rhode Island Governor, Gina Raimondo, for asymptomatic state residents to be tested twice before the end of the year is not evidence-based and is rendered even more questionable if vitally important “cycle threshold” data is not included in reporting PCR test results. This according to a Dr. Andrew Bostom, who today was appointed as an adjunct scholar to the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity.

In his most recent column, Rhode Island Crosses the Threshold of Covid-19 Testing Transparency, Dr. Bostom – an academic internist, clinical trialist, and Brown University degreed epidemiologist – cites a history of the long-held medical consensus that “asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks.”

Earlier this year, as explained on the Center’s popular In The Dugout show, Dr. Bostom was the first medical expert in Rhode Island, and among the first in the country, to raise awareness about the need for cycle-threshold (Ct) values to be reported publicly en masse as well as privately to patients. 

Dr. Bostom called it “misguided” and “hysteria”, in referring to the Governor’s policy of mass screening of RI residents who have no symptoms, especially without accompanying Ct data, which measures the viral load in individual testing samples. 

NOT ALL POSITIVE TESTS ARE THE SAME: The New York Times and Dr. Anthony Fauci have determined that many who test positive for the coronavirus have such miniscule levels of the virus that they pose no community or individual risk.

In recent weeks, both the WHO (World Health Organization) and the state of Floridarecognized the importance of Ct values, as most “positive” test results with high Ct values are essentially “false positives” … vitally important information when it comes to crafting public policy and treatment and quarantine regimens for individual patients. Yet Rhode Island and other states routinely keep this data hidden from the pubic.

Led by Dr. Bostom earlier this month, the Center’s analysis of a sample of about 5000 tests with Ct values confirmed that over one-half of all positive tests in the state may be harmless, in that those patients may not have been infectious or contagious.

Also this month, the Center launched a statewide petition campaign to demand Covid data transparency from the RI Department of Health (DOH); to collect and report critical Ct testing data. Upon signing the digital petition at RIfreedom.org/covid-transparency, an email will be automatically generated and sent to multiple members of the DOH and the Governor’s office. 

Dr. Bostom will be the hour-long guest today on In The Dugout at a special pre-Christmas time of 3:00 PM EST at www.RIFreedom.org/Live , to discuss his column, and to answer questions from viewers and listeners about any pandemic related medical questions, including his views on vaccines and therapy options.

To learn more about Dr. Bostom, and all of the Center’s adjunct scholars, scroll down the Center’s “About Us” web-page, here: https://rifreedom.org/about-us/