As part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) updated COVID-19 guidance, individuals no longer have to obtain a negative PCR test to end quarantine after isolating for five days so long as they are asymptomatic. CDC director Rochelle Walensky’s explained that is because we now know that PCR tests often show “positive” COVID-19 cases well beyond the point of transmissibility. In effect, we would be needlessly keeping people in isolation if we depended on PCR tests. That reasoning enraged many Americans who have long argued that exact sentiments and wondered how long this fact has been known by the medical establishment.
On ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” Walensky stated Wednesday morning that the PCR tests can show positive cases for as long as three months.
The newly updated CDC guidelines don’t require testing at the end of isolation because PCR tests can stay positive for up to 12 weeks, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told “Good Morning America” Wednesday.
“So we would have people in isolation for a very long time if we were relying on PCRs,” Walensky said.
Walensky also addressed Tuesday’s news from the FDA that, according to early data, rapid antigen tests may be less sensitive when it comes to the omicron variant.
“We do know that the most sensitive test you can do is a PCR test,” Walensky said. “So if you have symptoms and you have a negative antigen test, we do ask you to go and get a PCR to make sure those symptoms are not attributable to COVID.”
As The Daily Wire reported earlier Wednesday, Walensky also said that the CDC shortened the isolation period in part based on their opinion of what the American people could “tolerate.” Walensky’s comments came during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins:
“So from what you are saying, it sounds like this decision had just as much to do with business as it did with the science,” Collins pushed back.
“It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate,” Walensky replied, adding, “We have seen relatively low rates of isolation for all of this pandemic. Some science has demonstrated that less than a third of people are isolating when they need to. We really want to make sure we have guidance in this moment where we were going to have a lot of disease that could be adhered to, that people were willing to adhere to, and that spoke to specifically when people were maximally infectious. So it really spoke to both behaviors and to what people were able to do.”
In response, hundreds of conservatives were outraged over the apparent failure of PCR tests to accurately capture the threat of the virus.
“This means that for the past 21 months, people sat home for extra days and weeks because their test came back with an irrelevant positive. We didn’t know this 6, 12, 18 months ago? Really?” political commentator Yossi Gestetner tweeted.
This means that for the past 21 months, people sat home for extra days and weeks because their test came back with an irrelevant positive. We didn’t know this 6, 12, 18 months ago? Really?
— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) December 29, 2021
“I’m old enough to remember when we were called conspiracy theorists for telling people that PCR tests were terribly unreliable. 2 years later the CDC finally caught up and acknowledged reality,” congressional candidate Robby Starbuck tweeted.
I’m old enough to remember when we were called conspiracy theorists for telling people that PCR tests were terribly unreliable. 2 years later the CDC finally caught up and acknowledged reality. https://t.co/Di16nImbS1
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) December 29, 2021
“Hundreds of billions of dollars lost in the U.S. economy, millions with mental health issues locked away for months at a time all because, until now, the CDC was too afraid to admit PCR tests are flawed,” politico Daniel Bostic added.
Hundreds of billions of dollars lost in the U.S. economy, millions with mental health issues locked away for months at a time all because, until now, the CDC was too afraid to admit PCR tests are flawed. https://t.co/ygNVM4in7S
— Daniel Bostic (@debostic) December 29, 2021
This inaccuracy also raises the question of how many deaths attributed to COVID-19 were merely individuals who used the flawed PCR test to determine they had the virus but actually died as a result of something else unrelated to COVID-19.
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Source: Dailywire
