Coronavirus Cases Plummet When PCR Cycle Threshold is Adjusted (Sep. 29)
by Barbara Cáceres
by Barbara Cáceres slightly edited for clarity from https://thevaccinereaction.org/2020/09/coronavirus-cases-plummet-when-pcr-tests-are-adjusted/
Published September 29, 2020
Health experts now say PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus associated with the illness COVID-19, is too sensitive and needs to be adjusted to rule out people who have insignificant amounts of the virus in their system.1
The PCR test’s threshold is so high, it detects people with the live virus as well as those with a few genetic fragments left over from past infections which no longer poses a risk. “It’s like finding a hair in a room after a person left it,” says Michael Mina, MD, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.2
In three sets of testing data including cycle thresholds compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The New York Times found.3
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials state they do not specify the cycle threshold ranges used to determine who is positive, and commercial manufacturers and laboratories set their own threshold ranges.5
