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Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2021

Are test kits that don’t differentiate between COVID-19 variants the only way to detect a rise in variants?

Dana Ford, Lead Stories
no

Routine tests for COVID-19 indicate whether a person is infected by the virus; they don't determine which variants have been detected.

However, it's entirely possible to determine which variant caused a person's infection through genomic sequencing tests. The CDC helps track variants by using this process on samples collected from state health departments and other public agencies.

While it's true that routine tests for COVID-19 don't pick up variants, it's not true that variants can't be detected — contrary to social media posts.

From the CDC: "Routine analysis of genetic sequence data enables CDC and its public health partners to identify and characterize variant viruses — either new ones identified in the U.S. or those already identified abroad — and to investigate how variants impact COVID-19 disease severity and the effectiveness of vaccines, treatment, and diagnostic tests."

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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