Pennacchio: Article Claims Incorrect Use of PCR Tests Fueled Pandemic Panic

In a recent article published on the Children’s Health Defense’s web site, Dr. Joseph Mercola stated that PCR testing is not the most reliable process for diagnosing COVID in patients, Senator Joe Pennacchio today revealed.

“For several months, experts have highlighted the true cause behind the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the incorrect use of PCR tests set at a ridiculously high cycle count (CT), which falsely labels healthy people as ‘COVID-19 cases.’ In reality, the PCR test is not a proper diagnostic test, although it has been promoted as such,” Mercola wrote in his paper.

The FDA sets cycling standards at 35 while New Jersey has been reported to go even further at 40 cycles.  Each time a sample is cycled it doubles the amount of viral genetic material.

One of the many problems noted by Dr. Mercola is that cycled material itself may not be reflective of live infectious virus.  The matter may be dead viruses or viral debris, neither of which cause infection. The continued high CT multiplication of the sample also produces an overwhelming amount of false positives.

The article states that PCR testing should be done on symptomatic patients only, and asymptomatic patients have no chance of being infectious. Mercola points to studies that show that viral cultures (actual growth of the live virus) were only positive when cycled 28.4 times or less.  Cycling after 30 was likely to deliver false positives.

Dr. Mercola sites a 2020 European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease study which concluded that to get a 100 percent confirmation of live COVID, the PCR test must be run at a cycling of 17.  Likewise, a study in the Journal of Clinical Infectious Disease assessed 29 different studies and found that the higher the CT, the lower the probability the specimens produced live virus, the importance being that dead viruses do not produce COVID infections.

The doctor also points out that although the virus is cleared and no longer infectious, after one week of symptom onset, the PCR test will continue detecting non-viable COVID for a median of 34 days.  This again distorts the true nature of the pandemic.

Last December, State Senator Pennacchio questioned the “one size fits all” PCR testing policy.  As early as August 2020 the New York Times began questioning the validity of positive PCR tests expressing similar concerns.

Senator Pennacchio stated, “It is indefensible to me that after 14 months of lockdown and pandemic rules, our health department has not developed a more concise protocol for testing and determining specifically what those test outcomes mean.”

Dr. Mercola mentions that historically a “case” is referred to someone who is actually sick, never someone who had no symptoms of the disease.”

“Unfortunately, it is possible public policy in New Jersey is being determined by this inconsistent and false science,” concluded Pennacchio.