Have you ever imagined the personification of a variant? Are some variants detected to intentionally distract their audience members from the real cause of the condition at hand? Does a VUS know it misled providers for variable increments of time before a functional study resulted in a variant downgrade? If a VUS could feel, would they be laughing at us? “Ha! There you are looking at that measly variant when I am right here! You didn’t even find my in trans partner in crime, the Single Exon Deletion.” As the genetic counselor we may never know what the “real” condition is for a particular patient or how the story ends based on the clinical relationship. With our ever-expanding knowledge of the penetrance and variability for so many conditions, this can be a tricky balance to find. It also occurs with patients who have a positive test result that does not fully explain the reason for genetic testing. The red herring comes up repeatedly in VUS conversations with providers and patients. Of course, we are drawn toward genes and variants with overlapping features and a plausible inheritance pattern for that specific patient. Large, multigene panel results or exome/genome sequencing reports are reviewed with the patient’s clinical features in mind. Red herrings were used to train hunting horses to be comfortable with the chaos and various smells during a hunt. The origin of this phrase is that of a kipper, or a cured herring, which turns red during the curing process, producing a pungent odor 1. In an Agatha Christie novel, the red herring may lead the reader down an alternate path of suspicion so that the plot twist keeps us on edge until the dramatic end. In politics, literature, and everyday conversations a red herring is purposely used to distract the audience from the actual issue at hand. These variants are waiting to be misattributed or stretched to clinically fit the patient like a Lycra jumpsuit. Physicians, patients, and all of us alike are drawn to the “red herring” genetic test result, i.e., the variant of uncertain significance (VUS) or the positive but not all-encompassing result. Those of us in genetics work within the realm of the red herring fallacy.
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