1) high cycle PCR tests tend to produce false positives. [0]
2) recently (maybe now?) the CDC was recommending that the cycle count be lowered for vaccinated individuals (break through cases). [1]
If unvaccinated individuals are being tested to a different standard, that would seem to muddy the waters, wouldn't it?
[0] https://medicine.yale.edu/labmed/sections/virology/COVID-19%...
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210623005911/https://www.cdc.g...
I followed your link [1] and read the entire page multiple times and I can find no content which supports "recommending that the cycle count be lowered for vaccinated individuals".
It says that samples submitted for sequencing should be positive when CT<=28 or are detected as positive by another modality.
Some more discussion on this topic was on HN yesterday [0]
also, from last August:
One solution would be to adjust the cycle threshold used now to decide that a patient is infected. Most tests set the limit at 40, a few at 37. This means that you are positive for the coronavirus if the test process required up to 40 cycles, or 37, to detect the virus. [1]
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testin...