Fauci Did Not Announce A New COVID Variant That Evades Tests
The Claim
Dr. Fauci has warned people to wear masks because of a symptomless coronavirus variant that evades detection.
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Emerging story
Recently, a number of social media users shared the claim that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has warned Americans that a new variant of coronavirus is spreading which evades tests and is symptomless. Claims emphasize that Fauci says individuals still need to wear masks.
These recent posts have managed to gain hundreds of shares on social media. Additionally, older versions of this claim exist, where the person giving the warning is not Dr. Fauci, but just “they,” which have managed to gain thousands of interactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
There is no instance in which Dr. Fauci has warned people to mask up because of a coronavirus variant that evades tests and is symptomless. Many of the posts use a screenshot that appears to be a tweet from March 2021. In that month, France identified a coronavirus variant that was not detectable via PCR tests but was detectable via other forms of testing. This variant was not symptomless. In fact, all eight individuals that France identified as carrying the PCR test-resistant variant died of the virus.
This new variant was eventually confirmed by taking blood and phlegm samples from the patients. At least one company has now claimed that its PCR tests are able to detect this variant.
Prior to this variant, researchers in Finland identified another coronavirus variant that was resistant to PCR tests in February 2021.
Lastly, this PCR test evading variant is not the Delta variant, which is now predominant across the U.S. Standard nose and throat swab coronavirus tests work in detecting the Delta variant (although they will not tell an individual if they are infected with the Delta variant specifically, just coronavirus in general.)
