Commentary
While many things elevated the COVID-19 pandemic from mere disease into a world-altering narrative—statistics, media hype, the visuals of masking, lock-downs, etc.—the saga essentially rested on two basic metrics: Determining the scale of the outbreak measured predominantly by PCR tests and “COVID deaths” driving understanding of the disease’s severity as captured through death certificates.
PCR testing and the approach to certifying deaths are thus the “Meat and Potatos” for any pandemic recipe that could turn a future viral outbreak into a global emergency.
The PCR test has been touted as the “gold standard” for COVID-19 diagnosis. But even its inventor and Nobel Prize laureate, Kary Mullis, was skeptical of the PCR’s application for clinical diagnosis, noting that it “does not tell you that you are sick.”…