HomeMy WebLinkAbout01312021_Shumacher_PCR Testing 45 ctFrom:Stephen Schumacher
Cc:Board of Health; Tom Locke; Allison Berry, Clallam County Health Officer; news@ptleader.com; PT Free Press
Subject:Accountability for Jeffco"s 45-Cycle Threshold PCR Test
Date:Sunday, January 31, 2021 10:01:27 PM
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Dear Jefferson County Commissioners,
On September 2, 2020, I sent the following Public Comment to the
Jefferson County Board of Health and Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke:
"Per the August 29 New York Times report [of 90% false positives at
40-cycle threshold], I'm concerned about the criteria used to
determine confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Jefferson County. Do all
these cases exhibit symptoms, or are "cases" being equated to
positive test results? If the latter, what percentage of cases
exhibit symptoms? Are positive test results being recorded using PCR
tests, and if so, what is the Cycle Threshold value used for these tests?"
I never received any answers to these questions nor have seen them
addressed by Dr. Locke in the press.
Last week the Port Townsend Free Press reported that Jefferson
Healthcare is "using a PCR assay with a 45-cycle threshold, well
beyond the outer limits of reliability."
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2021/01/25/is-jefferson-county-health-department-overstating-covid-case-
numbers/
This revelation raises various accountability issues, including:
1) Why did our county have to wait nearly 4 months to learn about its
45-cycle threshold from a fortuitous Public Records Request?
2) Since Dr. Locke was also Clallam Health Officer until recently, is
this same unreliable 45 Ct test also in use throughout Clallam County?
3) Was the choice to use this 45 Ct test ever discussed and approved
by the Jefferson County Board of Health or County Commissioners? If
not, was it ever even reported and its significance explained to them?
4) Does Dr. Locke or anybody else keep statistical track of
cumulative cycle counts for positive tests and resulting cases in our
county, or is this info unavailable or being ignored? Could this
information be regularly published in the media, or at least be made
available upon request?
5) Does our county always order a second test following a positive
PCR result, and if not, how often and on what basis? Are all
positive tests treated as COVID-19 cases regardless of symptoms, and
if not, how often has high cycle count been used to discard extremely
weak positive test results?
6) How many county residents have been reported as cases,
quarantined, and contact-traced based on cycle counts above 33, when
the CDC shows "it is extremely difficult to detect any live virus in
a sample above a threshold of 33 cycles"?
Yours truly,Stephen Schumacher2023 E. Sims Way #200Port Townsend, WA 98368