Posted by: aShogunNamedMarcus
Posted by: shoreboy
Posted by: aShogunNamedMarcus
This is going around the internet, if it didnt have an FDA link I wouldnt post it. (Bottom of) Page 39 of this link says:
The analytical sensitivity of the rRT-PCR assays contained in the CDC 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel were determined in Limit of Detection studies. Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available, assays designed for detection of the 2019-nCoV RNA were tested with...
Im not sure what your point here is? The sequence of the virus is well known. You do not need actual virus to create assays to detect the virus. Yay science!
... My point is - does one not need a virus for a pandemic? Does an assay test show ongoing infection? To my knowledge, since it a cultured blood sample, it just shows the presence of... something? And, do you not need a virus isolate to know what you're looking for?
One does not need a virus to create an assay when the sequence is already known. The virus would have been isolated in order to get its genomic sequence initially. Keeping live virus stocks around is difficult and unnecessarily dangerous. The current test used will show that there are viral RNA particles circulating in the sample. It means that sample is currently infected with or has recently been infected with the virus of interest. There are plenty of immunology and genomics sources out there to understand how this all works. The assay targets a specific RNA sequence from the virus of interest, so there is little to no chance you are assaying for some other pathogen.