“We did not use the bulls*** PCR test.’”
PCR tests for influenza have been around for awhile. They can identify and distinguish between influenza A and B viruses and classify influenza A viruses by subtype. It can also detect highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus.
The problem with the covid PCR was the cycling number was so high it produced a high level of false positives aka “asymptomatic” covid. Basically they turned the knob to 11.