This photo, taken on May 12, 2020, shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, near headquarters, in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images)
TO Newsroom
UPDATED 12:50 PM PT – Saturday, January 23, 2021
The CDC has reported more than 24.5 million positive cases of COVID-19 in the United States since March. This number was calculated using PCR nose swabs, which until the Inauguration Day were considered the gold standard by both the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control.
However, a new statement published by the World Health Organization suggests that a simple test result in a nasal swab is not enough to confirm a positive case.
The notice stated: ‘Most PCR tests are indicated as a diagnostic aid, therefore healthcare providers should consider any results in combination with the time of sampling, sample type, test specificity, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contact, and epidemiological information. ”
While the reliability of PCR tests on the nose has long been known to be problematic, many are now wondering why the WHO has abruptly moved away from using a positive PCR test result as a confirmation of infection. In previous pandemics, the data around PCR tests were 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 nasal 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, original viral material in that sample by 1 trillion times,” Berenson said. “Okay, so a single viral particle you pick up becomes 1 trillion particles, it’s very easy to find the virus in humans when you run a PCR cycle at that level.”
This 40-cycle protocol, which multiplies the samples by 1 trillion times, is currently used by the vast majority of test points 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 spread the virus to other people”.
With this WHO announcement, Biden-administered COVID-19 tests will be much more closely monitored, which means that test results will take much longer and new cases will decline rapidly. That is, only if the CDC immediately complies with the new standard set by the World Health Organization.