Editorial (Science, Public Health Policy & the Law): Use of Arbitrary Cycle Threshold (Ct) Values in COVID-19 Virus Detection Must End

This will likely be my final article on PCR until the practice stops, so please make the most of your next few moments and share this widely!

Published 11/14/2022.

The Use of Arbitrary and Generalized Ct Values in COVID-19 Non-Quantitative Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (nonQ-RT-PCR) Testing Must End

“An elementary problem with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) – recognized at its inception – is that non-specific binding of PCR primers to arbitrary targets will cause off-target amplification. This is true whether the target sequence is a gene sequence within a single individual, and it is true when the target is viral, such as the SARS-CoV-2 viral genome in a clinical sample. PCR is used routinely to produce enough copies, or amplicons, of the target nucleotide molecule so the sequence can be determined using either Sanger sequencing or Next-Generation sequencing…”

Fig 1 from the Editorial shows the False Discovery Rate of samples called “Positive” at specific nonQ-RT-PCR cycle thresholds.