The State of Florida’s Department of Health has now mandated PCR test “Cycle threshold (CT) values and their reference ranges, as applicable, must be reported by laboratories to FDOH via electronic laboratory reporting or by fax immediately” – a new requirement that was sent out in a memo via email to COVID-19 testing labs across the state in the last week.
The mandate, sent on letterhead from both Florida Surgeon General, Scott A. Rivkees, MD, and Governor Ron DeSantis, is historic since it marks the first time a U.S. state public health department has acknowledged the critical importance of counting cycle thresholds when reporting PCR test results that drive COVID-19 ‘case’ numbers:
A cycle threshold, or “CT value” is defined here by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in a FAQ:
The cycle threshold (Ct value) is the point at which a reaction reaches a fluorescent intensity above background levels. The Ct value indicates when the nucleic acid target is detectable in the amplification process. There is a correlation between the Ct value and the amount of viral genetic material that was present in the specimen.
The Problem with PCR Tests
It’s long been known and well-documented that the higher number of cycles used in the PCR test, the lower the amount of “viral load” likely to be found in the testing sample – and often non-existent, resulting in a false-positive. This fact, along with other flaws, can render the PCR test basically “useless” in testing for COVID-19.
Without being able to know the CT values on PCR tests, where they can be widely variable in their reference ranges, using only a “positive” test result to determine if a person is infectious or even a ‘case’ is highly problematic.
The New York Times, back in August of 2020, published a report that essentially knee-capped the credibility of the PCR test with the headline “Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.”
A short video review of the NYT report’s findings is available here.
Also, 21WIRE editor and co-host Patrick Henningsen explained on an episode of UKC News how PCR tests have been used to create a ‘Case-demic’:
Would We Still Be Under Lockdown?
When news of this mandate first broke in Florida, the obvious question became if CT values had been required to be reported from the very beginning of the COVID crisis, would people, businesses and entire states still be under any form of a lockdown?
This is huge. Imagine if they had been doing this, using PCR Tests properly, since March. Would anyone be under #lockdown? Of course not… https://t.co/qXbBEpBUYb
— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) December 10, 2020
Clearly, the resulting data reported out as ‘cases’ using these high CT values have created an unmitigated disaster for both public policy and media discourse about the actual community spread of the virus. And that has resulted in the perpetual ‘New Normal’ lockdown culture we find ourselves in today.
“Saint Fauci’s” Summer Tell
Back in July of 2020, on an episode of the “This Week in Virology” podcast, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s become to many as something of a Patron Saint of COVID Truth, revealed in an interview that when the PCR test is run at 35 cycles or higher, a positive result at that level (the metric that’s being used to indicate an infection) simply cannot be considered “replication-confident”:
“…If you get [perform the test at] a cycle threshold of 35 or more… the chances of it being replication-confident [aka accurate] are miniscule… you almost never can culture virus [detect a true positive result] from a 37 threshold cycle…even 36…”
Watch at 4m, 20s mark, directly from Saint Fauci himself:
Has Florida smartened up to the game now?
It’s right to be skeptical of this latest move by Florida, but it’s also encouraging to see.
This could all just be a ploy to eventually cut CT values so that a Biden-Harris administration can declare a surreptitious victory over COVID in the Spring of 2021 – with a sudden and dramatic drop in the number of new cases.
Or, hopefully, it will get other states to follow Florida’s lead and push for more accurate reporting so we can finally put an end to this so-called pandemic.
NOTE: Please forward this news and information to your state or local government and ask whether they too will follow Florida’s lead on maintaining an accurate PCR Testing standard going forward.
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