CDC Lab Alert July 21, 2021
Case #
2591

Facebook fact-checks direct link to CDC website, claims "false information": The CDC published a "Lab Alert" titled "Changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing" on July 21, 2021. The text of this alert read:

"After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives.

Visit the FDA website for a list of authorized COVID-19 diagnostic methods. For a summary of the performance of FDA-authorized molecular methods with an FDA reference panel, visit this page.

In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select and begin their transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test. CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. Such assays can facilitate continued testing for both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and can save both time and resources as we head into influenza season. Laboratories and testing sites should validate and verify their selected assay within their facility before beginning clinical testing."

Several Facebook posts of this information were fact-checked by Facebook.

A user made a Facebook post combining a link to the CDC alert with a tweet from another user. The tweet read: "After 180 million positive cases, the CDC have announced their withdrawal statement from using the PCR test to detect Covid, due to its lack of detection to differentiate between Covid and influenza. So at this point, conspiracy theories might as well be called spoiler alerts." Facebook placed a fact-check interstitial over this post, calling it "False information," and linking to fact-check articles from the highly leftist Health Feedback, and the equally leftist FactCheck.org. Facebook has admitted that 95% of the time, users do not click through a fact-check interstitial. 

Another user posted a link to the same CDC alert with the following post: "The CDC has withdrawn emergency approval for PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2. 'CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses.' Is this an admission that the COVID-19 tests used in Australia can't tell the difference between COVID-19 and influenza? Or that they are the same thing? Or the tests just don't work at all? Maybe all of the above. This has huge implications. People's businesses have been shut down and lives have been destroyed on the basis of a test that the CDC now says it no longer supports." Facebook placed a "Partly False Information" fact-check label on this post, and it linked to the same biased FactCheck.org article, and another from the Australian Associated Press.

However, independent journalist Tim Pool posted nothing but a link to the CDC alert on his Facebook page, and it received the same "Partly False Information" fact-check label, making it appear that Facebook is ruling an actual CDC alert as "partly false." This does not bolster confidence in the CDC whatsoever.

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