Episode 1290 • • 3:02 - 7:30
1290: Hairy Legs
WRAL Investigation, PCR Cycle Thresholds and Case Inflation
A detailed report from WRAL in North Carolina investigates how high cycle thresholds in PCR testing lead to inflated case numbers. Experts from Oxford and Duke University explain that tests cycled 35 to 40 times can detect dead RNA from old infections rather than active, infectious virus. The report suggests that a threshold of 25 cycles is a more accurate measure of whether a person is actually contagious.