I boost stuff without reading it all, too. I mean, to be clear in this case itself I read a few of the 18 cited papers about viral shedding, but not all of them.
References 92-110 are about viral shedding. 94, for instance, "SARS-CoV-2 prolonged infection during advanced HIV disease evolves extensive immune escape" discusses PCR testing a patient across 216 days post-COVID diagnosis.
It's a good discussion to have, because I know people are hyper focused on viral persistence right now. Understanding that when people say "viral clearance" it is almost always supported by nasopharyngeal swab PCR testing is key to the discussion, IMO.
So, anyway, I've then seen a couple medical/science people I follow here seemingly using the terms interchangeably, and I think classically that would be fine. The belief would generally be "You're not testing positive so you have cleared the virus."
However, when the "COVID cautious" community discusses this I think the terminology is important. Having SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence is not going to be tested by PCR.
