The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will no longer recognize PCR tests as valid methods of diagnosing COVID-19 by the end of this year. The CDC announced in a lab alert on its website that it will be withdrawing its standing request to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency use authorization for PCR tests to be used to detect SARS-CoV-2. The request, which was issued in February 2020, will be withdrawn on December 31, 2021, a move which signals that the CDC no longer approves of the use of PCR tests as valid diagnostic methods for COVID-19.
In the CDC’s own words: “After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only.”
PCR tests are widely used in mass testing in the United States and across the globe to detect the presence of COVID-19 in individuals. The decision by the CDC, made in July 2021, comes as reports of false positive results to COVID tests have been increasing. Despite corporate media’s concerted efforts to discredit such reports, the climbing rate of false positive test results has gained international attention, most notably from real-life cases. As recently as December 2021, the NBA issued a statement confirming that basketball star Lebron James received a false positive result to a PCR test, which caused him to isolate from his family and miss a game against the Sacramento Kings. The false positive was subsequently refuted by two more PCR tests, the results of which were negative.
Currently, the false positive rate for PCR tests is reported to be at least 5%. This means that in countries such as the United Kingdom, where over 1 million people are being tested daily, around 50,000 people a day are diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 and consequently undergo severe measures such as quarantine and strict isolation, despite not being infected at all. In countries such as Australia, which rapidly transformed into a police state after 400 COVID-19-positive cases were confirmed, false positive results can have dramatic effects.
The accuracy of COVID testing in general has come into question since last year. In November 2020, Elon Musk announced that he had taken four COVID-19 tests in one day, two of which came back positive and two of which came back negative. The world’s richest man irritated mainstream media with the following tweet: “Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for COVID four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse.”
More recently, Australian medical manufacturer firm Ellume issued a recall for 2.2 million at-home COVID tests in the United States due to a high false positive rate.
Many are questioning the reason for the CDC’s decision to remove its support for PCR testing. If it is due to a high false-positive rate, then that would contradict media reports that the accuracy of PCR tests is to be trusted, and it would also call into question the number of COVID-19 cases that have led some countries to impose draconian measures on their citizenries. On the other hand, if the CDC is not concerned with the false-positive rate and considers PCR tests to be accurate detectors of COVID-19, then one wonders what other factors are at play that are enough to cancel such an effective method.
by Yudi Sherman
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