Dr Anthony Fauci says 35 revolutions useless – MoH use 40
Dr Anthony Fauci says that all “positive” tests that use more than 35 revolutions will be picking up old infections and are not active cases. NZ’s MoH uses 40 revolutions. To find if a person is infected with SARS COV-2, the test takes the sample RNA and converts it to DNA. They then amplify by PCR with SARS COV-2 specific primers. (Each cycle/revolution of amplification is like zooming into google maps.) The presence of viral RNA indicates active SARS COV-2 infection. MoH advise they only read the result once they reach 40 amplification cycles. This means we don’t know if the so-called positive cases have been been detected at 15 amplification cycles or not until 40 cycles.
Therefore we sent the Ministry of Health the following Official Information Act request on the 14th of November to help clarify if there is some way the MoH know if a test result has found a true positive or a false positive.
I have been advised that the PCR test uses a fluorescent signal to determine if a test is positive. According to this article in Nature, “Plotting fluorescence against cycle number and comparing the results to a standard curve (produced by real-time PCR of known amounts of DNA) enables scientists to determine the amount of DNA present during each step of the PCR reaction.”
Are results in NZ compared against a standard curve to determine the amount of DNA present in each step of the PCR reaction?
If so, please advise a breakdown of the number of tests that have identified SARS COV-2 in each cycle of the test.
If not, please advise if the MoH holds any data that provides information regarding with cycle a PCR test is deemed positive.
The Ministry of Health replied:
Information in response to each part of your request is outlined below.
“Are results in NZ compared against a standard curve to determine the amount of DNA present in each step of the PCR reaction?”
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results are not compared against a standard curve to determine the amount of DNA present in each step of the PCR. RT-PCR assays employed in New Zealand for SARS-CoV-2 are qualitative assays and only deliver a positive (detected) or negative (not detected) result.
“If not, please advise if the MoH holds any data that provides information regarding with cycle a PCR test is deemed positive.”
The Ministry does not hold any information pertaining to this part of your request and has no grounds for believing that the information is held by any agency subject to Act. As such, this part of your request is refused under section 18(g) of the Act.
This confirms that a positive result from a PCR test does not tell us anything.
Portuguese Rule PCR Unreliable
On the 11th of November 2020, a Portuguese Court of Appeal ruled that PCR tests are unreliable and that it is unlawful to quarantine people based solely on a PCR test.
New York Times
29th August 2020 Your Coronavirus Test is Positive. Maybe it Shouldn’t be.