PCR tests being removed from FDA approved list?

[frantick]

Isn't this, link below, the PCR test required to fly these days or am I ignorant and this is something else? If it IS the current testing method taking place, doesn't removing it from the FDA approval list basically say it doesn't work? Why isn't this being reported on a larger scale? Educate me please.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I think the CDC wants labs to switch from the current PCR test that only detects Covid-19 to tests that can detect both Covid-19 and influenza and differentiate between them for diagnostic purposes.  I don't think it means that current PCR tests would not still be a viable way of testing for the presence of Covid-19 for allowing travel and other purposes.

[onthedarkside]

The issue raised in the OP post is a very technical issue. Anyone posting content on this subject here needs to ensure that their content is coming from reliable / credible news sources, or it will be removed.

 

[onthedarkside]

The suggestion of the OP post that RT-PCR tests aren't reliable or are being halted in use by the U.S. CDC is another episode of fake news that's making the rounds in certain social media circles. It's neither true nor correct. So this thread is hereby CLOSED.

 

Please see the following FactCheck.org report on what's going on -- which is the CDC is going to be withdrawing its own version of an RT-PCR test because other versions subsequently developed by various commercial firms and ones that have other advantages are now widely available, and will continue to be used:

 

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/07/scicheck-viral-posts-misrepresent-cdc-announcement-on-covid-19-pcr-test/

 

Viral Posts Misrepresent CDC Announcement on COVID-19 PCR Test

 

"Scientists consider polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests a highly reliable tool for diagnosing COVID-19. But social media posts are misrepresenting a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcement regarding the eventual discontinuation of its own test, falsely claiming the government has conceded that PCR tests aren’t reliable....

...

In explaining the CDC’s decision to end the use of its own PCR test at the end of 2021, Kristen Nordlund, an agency spokeswoman, in an email to us cited “the availability of commercial options for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including multiplexed (discussed here) and high-throughput options” — referring to technologies that use an automated process to administer hundreds of tests per day.

 

“Although the CDC 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019 nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel met an important unmet need when it was developed and deployed and has not demonstrated any performance issues, the demand for this test has declined with the emergence of other higher-throughput and multiplexed assays,” Nordlund said."