Kary Mullis said PCR was NOT a test at all. That is not what it is for. It's job is to amplify DNA.

It was Herr Professor Doctor Christian Drosten who claimed to have turned it into a test - but his background seems problematic.

Also, strictly, Mullis was not commenting on SARS-COV-2 because he "died" in the August prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. I think he was talking about SARS-COV-1 or possibly MERS. He died of pneumonia. Could that have been a special early case of COVID-19, I wonder? Some evil people might have enjoyed that.

But you are basically right in that PCR cannot be used to see whether you have gone down with a virus.

Kary Mullis said PCR was NOT a test at all. That is not what it is for. It's job is to amplify DNA.

It was Herr Professor Doctor Christian Drosten who claimed to have turned it into a test - but his background seems problematic.