Thread by @kerpen

Turning point? **NYT*** blasts non-infectious positives from miscalibrated PCR tests.
nytimes.com/2020/08/29/hea…

"In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found."

"On Thursday, the United States recorded 45,604 new coronavirus cases... If the rates of contagiousness in Massachusetts and New York were to apply nationwide, then perhaps only 4,500 of those people may actually need to isolate and submit to contact tracing."

"Any test with a cycle threshold above 35 is too sensitive, agreed Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California, Riverside. 'I’m shocked that people would think that 40 could represent a positive,' she said."

"Dr. Mina said he would set the figure at 30, or even less. Those changes would mean the amount of genetic material in a patient’s sample would have to be 100-fold to 1,000-fold higher than the current standard for the test to return a positive result."

"In Massachusetts, from 85 to 90 percent of people who tested positive in July with a cycle threshold of 40 would have been deemed negative if the threshold were 30 cycles, Dr. Mina said. 'I would say that none of those people should be contact-traced, not one,' he said."

Not to say I told you so but I told you so.
americancommitment.org/content/too-ma…