I just read the WHO revised guidance and I don’t see where they directly mention a reduction in the cycle count.
They do say to be careful about manually adjusting the positivity threshold. Maybe that’s an indirect way of saying something about the cycle count.
To me what’s important is that they advise not to accept a positive result if it’s inconsistent with the “clinical presentation.” IOW, if the patient isn’t showing symptoms, don’t just mark them down them as positive. Instead they say to give another test using a different method. It’s easy to see how this could *substantially* reduce false positives.
“I just read the WHO revised guidance and I don’t see where they directly mention a reduction in the cycle count.“
They say to go with the way pcr was meant to be used. Which means diagnostic only and a replication rate around 20. In the 40’s during Trump time.
So you are technically correct, they do not say to reduce but they do say to use manufacturers methods which is never above 20 iirc.
Manually readjusting is changing an acceptable cycle count