WHO decides nasal swab PCR tests not sufficient for COVID-19 tests after diagnosing 24 million Americans



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This photo taken on May 12, 2020 shows a sign from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva next to their headquarters amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images)

To the press room
UPDATE 12:50 PM PT – Saturday January 23, 2021

The CDC has reported more than 24.5 million positive COVID-19 cases in the United States since March. This number was calculated using PCR nasal swab tests which, until the day of the inauguration, were considered the gold standard by both the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease. Control.

However, a new statement released by the World Health Organization suggests that a simple positive test result from a nasal swab is not enough to confirm a positive case.

The ad stated, “Most PCR tests are indicated as a diagnostic aid, therefore healthcare providers should consider any results in combination with time of collection, type of sample, specifics of the test. test, clinical findings, patient history, confirmed status of any contact, and epidemiological information. “

Although the reliability of nasal swab PCR testing has long been known to be problematic, many now wonder why the WHO has suddenly abandoned the use of a positive PCR test result as confirmation of infection. In past pandemics, the data surrounding PCR testing was so fragile that the WHO did not even consider the test to be a valid indication of infection.

As former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson explained, PCR tests use samples from the nose and then multiply the contents of those samples until a fluorescent added to the sample begins to appear, indicating the presence of COVID-19.

“A 40-cycle PCR test means you multiply the original, any original viral material in that sample by 1 trillion times,” Berenson said. “Okay, a single virus particle that you pick up becomes 1 trillion particles, it’s very easy to find a virus in people when you run a PCR cycle at that level.”

This 40-cycle protocol, which multiplies samples by a trillion times, is currently used by the vast majority of testing centers and hospitals. However, Dr Shawn Ferullo of MIT said that if your test is really positive in the 40th cycle, your viral load is “so low that you are not infected and you cannot pass the virus on to other people.” .

With this WHO announcement, COVID-19 tests under the Biden administration will be under much more intense scrutiny, meaning test results will take much longer and new cases will decline rapidly . That is, only if the CDC immediately follows the new standard set by the World Health Organization.

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