Ming Cha | Nucleic acid reagents in the United States cannot distinguish between influenza and new crowns were recovered by CDC?

Quick Facts

　　- "Acknowledging that the new crown test cannot distinguish between the flu and the new crown virus, so withdrawing the nucleic acid test kit" is fake news.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has clarified that the suspension of nucleic acid testing is to implement multiplex assays for the new crown and influenza to save time and resources.

　　- The website "Portal Ruling" that concocted this fake news has a strong bias stance and is called a "conspiracy theory" website by many media.

event background

　　Recently, a netizen @clif_high tweeted that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admitted that the new crown test cannot distinguish between influenza and new crown virus, and withdrawn the nucleic acid test kit.

This tweet received thousands of likes and retweets.

Check it out

Where did the news come from?

　　The media report reprinted by @clif_high is from the Gateway Pundit website and was published on December 29 last year by Jim Hoft.

　　Screenshot of the original title of "Portal Ruling"

　　The original text quoted a message titled "Lab Alert: Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing" published by the CDC on July 21 last year as "Lab Alert: Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing" The CDC admits that nucleic acid tests cannot distinguish between influenza and new coronavirus”.

　　Hoft went on to argue, "This explains the disappearance of flu cases in the U.S. in 2020. It (the news) also explains why the number of new crown cases will rise, which Dr. Fauci and those elites in Washington, D.C. had expected. Until this happens.”

　　Hooft also cited a website called Europe Reloaded.

"Without the attention of the media, the CDC no longer uses nucleic acid as an effective method for detecting and identifying the new crown, and has withdrawn it," the website said.

　　However, a careful reading of this CDC message, which was used as evidence by Hooft, shows that although the CDC requested to withdraw the application for nucleic acid testing to the U.S. Food and Drug Safety Administration, it did not mention the reason for it, "confounding the flu and the new coronavirus." This statement is out of the question.

　　CDC "Lab Alert" July 21, 2021

　　After the July 21 news caused an intense reaction, the CDC published another article on August 2 titled "Lab Alert: Clarifications" (Lab Alert: Clarifications The article about the Retirement of the CDC 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel), on "Why Real-Time Nucleic Acid Testing Is Disabled", "Whether Real-time Nucleic Acid Testing Will Be Inaccurate" and "Real-Time Nucleic Acid Testing" "Can nucleic acid testing detect both the new coronavirus and influenza virus at the same time" and other netizens' questions were answered.

　　CDC "Lab Alert" August 2, 2021

　　The article reads that the CDC is discontinuing nucleic acid testing because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized hundreds of other new crown testing methods, "the discontinuation of new crown real-time nucleic acid testing will allow CDC to focus its resources on public health surveillance and other response activities”, saving time and resources.

Regarding "other Covid-19 testing methods," the CDC cited multiplex assays for influenza and Covid-19.

　　The CDC said that the batch of nucleic acid reagents that were discontinued did not have the problem of low accuracy and were not withdrawn by the FDA.

In addition, nucleic acid testing works by testing for the presence of new coronavirus genetic material, and "the presence of influenza virus genetic material in a sample will not result in a false positive result."

　　Screenshot of CDC's official instructions

"Portal ruling" banned by Twitter

　　What is the sacredness of the "portal ruling" that first issued a misinterpretation of CDC documents?

　　After searching for the keyword "Gateway Pundit" on Google, it was found that the website was once characterized as a "extreme right-wing website" by many mainstream news media including CNN and the New York Times.

The author of the article, Hooft, is the founder and editor-in-chief of the website.

　　In an October 2017 report, CNN called the Portal ruling "far right."

　　A New York Times article in February 2018 described Portal Ruling as a "fringe site" that rose to prominence in 2016 by promoting voting fraud and Hillary Clinton-related conspiracy theories.

The Washington Post called Portal Ruling a website that "sells conspiracy theories."

　　In February 2021, Twitter permanently shut down the official account of Portal Ruling for "violating the Citizens Integrity Policy."

The Hill newspaper, citing a Twitter spokesperson, reported that the "Portal Ruling" Twitter account had repeatedly posted false information about the election results "for the purpose of manipulating or interfering with the election."

　　To sum up, "it is admitted that the new crown test cannot distinguish the flu from the new crown virus, so the nucleic acid test kit is withdrawn" is an outright fake news.

The website "Portal Ruling" that concocted this fake news has a strong biased stance and has been called a "conspiracy theory" website by many media.