It was either Trial Site News or Children's Health Defense that said the cycle discrepancy is a misreading of the FDA order. All PCR tests are now supposed to be 28 cycles. Who knows if that's clear to testing outlets though. I haven't read the order myself.
I remember how opaque the Pfizer jab approval was - turned out it only approves "comirnaty" (sp?) which is not even available, and not the Pfizer-BioNTech shot that's on shelves. Took a team of lawyers to figure THAT language out.
In any event, the change in PCR cycles could make a difference for year to year "case" comparisons. Isn't the false positive rate like 80% at 40 cycles? Falls to single digit for 28, if my memory serves (but it doesn't always).
in terms of saying "this is the absolute number of covid deaths," yes, PCR and testing/definitional standards are an issue.
BUT:
so long as those tests and standards are constant, it does not stop meaningful comparison by past season or among seasonally homogeneous regions.
That's a big "if."
But they're not consistent. Cycle count varies from 28 to 40, biased to be more sensitive for unvaccinated.
It was either Trial Site News or Children's Health Defense that said the cycle discrepancy is a misreading of the FDA order. All PCR tests are now supposed to be 28 cycles. Who knows if that's clear to testing outlets though. I haven't read the order myself.
I remember how opaque the Pfizer jab approval was - turned out it only approves "comirnaty" (sp?) which is not even available, and not the Pfizer-BioNTech shot that's on shelves. Took a team of lawyers to figure THAT language out.
In any event, the change in PCR cycles could make a difference for year to year "case" comparisons. Isn't the false positive rate like 80% at 40 cycles? Falls to single digit for 28, if my memory serves (but it doesn't always).
The techniques described in this story were used widely in the U.S. https://thecoloradoherald.com/2021/cdc-pcr-tests-to-be-run-at-higher-cycle-counts-for-unvaxxed-vs-vaxxed-ensuring-positive-tests-for-unvaxxed-and-negative-for-vaxxed-2/