Did the CDC Withdraw a COVID Test Because It Failed?

A post from the blog Armstrong Economics that has been widely shared on Facebook claims that the “CDC admits that COVID tests are invalid.” According to the article: “The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is finally withdrawing the PCR test for COVID for it is seriously flawed and is incapable of distinguishing between the COVID and influenza viruses.”

This is false. 

As proof for the claim, the article includes a statement from the CDC from July 2021, about “changes to CDC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 Testing.”

This statement declares that the CDC is withdrawing a request to the FDA for emergency use authorization for one specific COVID test and said it would be retired. However, it is not evidence that the PCR test for COVID-19 is flawed. 

The CDC issued a statement in August 2021 with “clarifications about the Retirement of the CDC 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel.”