Is the CDC collecting DNA through COVID-19 test samples?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a tweet on Feb. 16, 2022 stating that if a person took a COVID-19 nose swab test there was "a 10% chance that it ended up in a lab for genomic sequencing analysis."
The following day the CDC clarified that the testing is of the virus and not people's DNA.
However, a misleading social media message was posted after the clarification and did not note the correction.
A CDC spokesperson confirmed to Lead Stories that "Last week, a CDC tweet regarding genomic sequencing led some people to believe that personal identifying information was included in samples processed in the sequencing program. That is not the case. Laboratories around the country examine viral sequences from positive samples which contain no personal identifying information."