Certain batches of Covid-19 nasal swabs distributed to the U.S. military have been tainted with a deadly bacteria that causes necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease that quickly destroys tissue under the skin and often results in death unless IV antibiotics are administered before the onset of necrosis, said Captain Jacob Downing, a medical doctor and infectious disease expert at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Medical Research (WRAIR.)
On December 27, WRAIR received a report that three Airmen stationed at Lackland Airforce Base in San Antonio, Texas, had presented symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis within 72 hours of having been nasal swabbed for Covid-19. Two of the Airmen, Dr. Downing told Real Raw News, were already hospitalized and in intensive care by the time the report reached Walter Reed. One Airman had ulcers, blisters, and black spots on his face, as well as pus oozing from lesions on either side of his nasal cavity.
“The patient first displayed symptoms of a staph infection on December 21, three days after he’d been swabbed for Covid-19. Medical at Lackland gave him oral antibiotics, which proved ineffective. By the 24th, he’d developed acute necrosis and sepsis resulting in organ failure. He was placed in ICU and treated with an aggressive course of wide-spectrum intravenous antibiotics. He now needs a kidney transplant and skin grafts because surgeons at Lackland had to slice off part of his diseased face,” Dr. Downing said.
A second patient’s symptoms were eerily similar. He, too, went into streptococcal toxic shock syndrome within days of getting nasal swabbed. Fortunately, he received IV treatment before his organs began to shut down and his prognosis for survival is excellent, despite some permanent deformity, Dr. Downing said.
The third patient was not so fortunate. He died on the operating table as surgeons desperately fought to stop his liver, kidneys, and lungs from systematically collapsing. For twelve hours, medical staff tried to save his life, but to no avail. The damage, Dr. Downing said after reviewing Lackland’s medical reports, was so extensive and widespread throughout the patient’s body that he never had more than a 5% chance of surviving the infection that ravaged his body.
“There was a direct correlation between the patients’ getting sick and the nasal swabs,” Dr. Downing said. “It was at this point we asked Lackland to cease nasal swabbing and send us the remaining unused swabs. When we got them, what we found was alarming.”
The Covid-19 nasal swab diagnostic test (not a rapid test) is similar to how throat swabs have been used for decades to test for strep. A sample swabbed from the nose put on a special plate (culture) that enables bacteria to grow in the lab. The specific type of infection is figured out using chemical tests. If bacteria don’t grow, the culture is negative for Covid and the person doesn’t have Covid-19. If, however, the bacteria grow, the patient is deemed Covid positive. The military receives its Covid swabs in hermetically sealed packages labeled “For Covid-19 testing only.”
“Lackland sent us 5,000 sealed swabs. Each was laboratory tested, and of the 5,000, we found that 250 had traces of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a virulent bacterium that resist most contemporary antibiotics. Since bacteria cannot grow in an oxygen-free environment, we tested the packaging itself. The 250 packets contained microscopic punctures that allowed enough oxygen to allow growth,” Dr. Downing said.
“This appears to be deliberate, and we’re efforting to find out by whom,” he said in closing.