Faizel Patel – 17/06/2020
A Professor in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Western Australia says instruments that are being used to record temperatures for COVID-19 cannot actually measure a fever.
The wearing of masks has become compulsory and fever screening has been set up as a requirement before entry into hospitals, retail stores, workplaces, and schools.
However, there are physiological and clinical reasons why fever screening will not work.
Professors Duncan Mitchell and Andrea Fuller have based their arguments on an understanding of the physiology of fever, body temperature measurement, and fever prevalence in people who transmit COVID-19.
Speaking to Radio Islam live from New Zealand, Professor Duncan Mitchell says the fever of an infection is defined by an increase of the temperature in the inside of your body.
Mitchell says the infrared fever screening devices do not measure internal body temperature.
“The biggest problem is at one of the most infectious stages of COVID, your surface temperature and you deep body temperature go into opposite directions. So while your deep body temperature is going up, your surface temperature is coming down. So those thermal camera’s say that you are safe when you are actually really infectious.”
Professor Mitchell says there are questions about whether infrared screening devices were introduced because of expert medical opinions.
He says the handheld thermometers which looks like a ray guns are very inaccurate unless they are in temperature-controlled rooms.
“I think those thermal cameras were introduced because government’s and authorities and airports wanted to create the impression that they were doing something. They knew there was a problem and the ought to be doing something because right from the beginning the medical opinion has been that you should not use those camera’s for thermal screening. As a matter of fact, some of the manufacturers of those cameras say on their website ‘don’t use these for fever screening.’”
Professor Mitchell while the only real way of detecting a fever is having a thermometer which goes into the body core through one of the orifices, patients with COVID-19 presents risks for healthcare workers who have to be in close contact with those that present symptoms of the virus.
Listen to the interview with Professor Duncan Mitchell
0 Comments