How the CDC, FDA and USA Today Misrepresented The Effectiveness of Covid PCR Tests

Last Updated on December 3, 2022 by Shaun Snapp

Executive Summary

• The CDC and FDA lied about the effectiveness of the PCR test, and USA Today served as a PR firm to cover up why they lost their emergency use authorization.

Introduction

The CDC and FDA misled the public about the PRC (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. The proposed it could determine if a person had covid when it couldn’t. They needed a way to remove the test from use without admitting that all of the previous positive results that were used to drive the covid pandemic to a fever pitch were not valid.

For this, compliant “fact-checking” entities like USA Today were enlisted to provide more false information to the public and to cover up the CDC and FDA’s errors.

Our References for This Article

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Understanding the PCR Test’s Ineffectiveness

To understand the PCR test and why it is not effective for determining if a person has covid, see the article Understanding the PCR Test and How There Was Never A Reliable Test for Covid.

This article does not get into that topic but instead focuses on how establishment media entities have served as PR front ends for pharmaceutical companies and health authorities providing false information about PCR testing.

How USA Today Spun the CDC Dropping the PCR Test

Almost a full year after the WHO disavowed the PCR test, the CDC finally moved away from it as well. However, USA Today, which like Reuters and Politifact constantly put out false information called “fact checking” helped the CDC spin why it dropped the PCR as well.

A widely shared claim on social media has brought the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to retire its PCR test for COVID-19 back into the spotlight.

“CDC Withdraws Use of PCR Test for COVID and Finally Admits the Test Can Not Differentiate Between the Flu and COVID Virus,” reads the screenshot of a Gateway Pundit headline posted on Instagram on Dec. 29.

The Gateway Pundit article, posted the same day, refers to the CDC’s decision in July to withdraw the PCR test in 2022 that the agency created. The screenshot was liked more than 1,000 times in less than 24 hours. Other posts also received hundreds of likes in just a few hours.

But the claim badly mangles the facts.

The CDC’s PCR test will be removed from the list of tests under emergency use authorization because the demand for it has decreased with the authorization of other diagnostic tests – not because it confuses viruses. Experts say the test would not show false positives for COVID-19 if the person only had the flu. – USA Today

Really?

What is left out from this quote and this article is that the WHO disavowed the test around 12 months prior? The WHO stated that CDC PCR tests are not effective in detecting covid.

Let us review what the WHO stated at that time.

The WHO also cautions health care providers not to rely only on the results of a PCR test to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but to “consider any result in combination with timing of sampling, specimen type, assay specifics, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contacts, and epidemiological information.” In other words, just because a PCR test comes back positive for SARS-CoV-2 should not be the sole consideration for determining if someone has the virus. What is interesting is that within days of WHO guidance being issued, the number of new coronavirus cases reported in the United States began to markedly decline. The New York Times reported on Jan. 22 that, “In recent days, coronavirus cases have been dropping steadily across the United States.” – The Vaccine Reaction 

If the PCR test worked, obviously there would not be other factors necessary. Furthermore, part of the WHO guidance was to decrease the number of cycles for which the test was run, which reduced cases. This means that the previous cases of supposed covid were mostly false positives.

Why did USA Today leave out this important information?

Furthermore, why would declining demand cause the test to no longer be used? It is critical that the CDC not let on that most of the positive covid results from the PCR test were false positives.

The quote continues.

In an August news release, the CDC wrote the PCR test was specifically designed only to detect the viral genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 – not influenza, which causes the flu.

“It does not detect influenza or differentiate between influenza and SARS-CoV-2,” the website states.

Interesting. Again, was the covid PCR test actually trained on covid?

The answer is it was not, which is something else USA Today left out and clearly does not want it readers to know.

The quote from USA Today continues.

In other words, it’s not that the test can’t tell the two apart, it’s that the test was designed only to detect COVID-19. The CDC spelled this one by noting someone with the flu would not create a false positive for COVID-19 with this test.

It is known that because the number of cycles was never standardized, cycles between 35 and 45 gave false positives. The FDA never provided any guidance to manufacturers as to how many cycles to run.

The quote continues.

Experts told USA TODAY in July it’s “technically impossible” for the CDC’s PCR test to confuse SARS-CoV-2 and the influenza virus.

Who are these experts?

The term “experts” is routinely used by USA Today, but how do we check these experts’ financial bias or organization affiliation? And there is no reason not to name the experts that USA Today spoke with.

The USA Today quote continues.

PCR tests identify and amplify converted viral RNA until the virus’s genetic makeup can be detected and analyzed.