This image taken on May 12, 2020 shows a World Health Organization (WHO) sign in Geneva next to its headquarters amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images)
In Writing
UPDATED AT 12:50 PM PT – Saturday, January 23, 2021
Since March, the CDC has reported more than 24.5 million positive COVID-19 cases in the United States. This number has been calculated using PCR nasal tamponade tests, which until the day of the inauguration were considered the gold standard by both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control.
However, a new statement released by the World Health Organization suggests that a simple positive test result of a nasal swab is not enough to confirm a positive case.
That ad said, “Most PCR assays are indicated as an aid to diagnosis, so healthcare providers should consider any results in combination with the time of sampling, the type of sample, the trial details, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contact, and epidemiological information. “
Although the reliability of PCR tests with nasal swabs has long been known to be problematic, many now wonder why the WHO suddenly turned away from using a positive PCR test result as confirmation. of infection. In past pandemics, the data surrounding PCR testing was so unstable that the WHO did not even consider the test a valid indication of infection.
As former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson explained, PCR tests use nose samples 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 viral material in the sample by 1 trillion times,” Berenson said. “Okay, so that a single viral particle you catch turns into 1 trillion particles, it’s very easy to find viruses in people when you run a PCR cycle at that level.”
This 40-cycle protocol, which multiplies samples by 1 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 transmit the virus to other people.”
With this WHO announcement, COVID-19 testing under Biden administration will be subject to much more intense monitoring, meaning that test results will take much longer and new cases will go down quickly. That is, only if the CDC immediately follows the new standard set by the World Health Organization.