This is false, and based on a quote misattributed to the creator of PCR, Kary B Mullis, who died in 2019. He said you can't use PCR to determine the level of virus in the system. PCR was designed to detected presence, not quantity.
The source if the misquote is this article from 1996 on PCR testing and AIDS. Mullis only has a single quotation in the article.
http://www.virusmyth.org/aids/hiv/jlprotease.htm
With regard to the viral load tests, which attempt to use PCR for counting viruses, Mullis has stated: "Quantitative PCR is an oxymoron."
Understood about the misquote and did not know this, but how effective or reliable is PCR if the amplification is ramped up to “find” the pathogen? What I mean is if the amplification cycle is 40+ vs 25 what is the percentage of false positives for those two rates?