Understanding PCR Tests for Coronavirus
Opinion | From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clarion call has been to test, test and test some more. However, right from the start, serious questions arose about the tests being used to diagnose this infection, and questions have only multiplied since then. Positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have been […]
Coronavirus Cases Plummet When PCR Tests Are Adjusted
Health experts now say that PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus associated with the illness COVID-19, is too sensitive and needs to be adjusted to rule out people who have insignificant amounts of the virus in their system.1 The test’s threshold is so high that it detects people with the live virus as well as […]
Misleading CDC Report on COVID-19 Testing Combines “Apples and Elephants”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledged last week that it had lumped genetic tests that identify people with current COVID-19 infections together with serology (blood) antibody tests that measure whether someone has had the viral infection in the past.1 Combining the tally of the two tests overstates the country’s ability to […]
Live Tuberculosis “Vaccine” Being Tested as a Treatment for COVID-19 Infections
Story Highlights Researchers at Texas A&M University and five other academic institutions have begun a phase 4 clinical trial re-purposing a live attenuated tuberculosis vaccine to treat COVID-19. The researchers believe that the TICE® BCG vaccine, which is licensed to prevent and treat bladder cancer, may help mitigate the severity of COVID-19. The research team […]