The Official Coronavirus Numbers Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It
Because the U.S. data on coronavirus infections are so deeply flawed, the quantification of the outbreak obscures more than it illuminates.
We know, irrefutably, one thing about the coronavirus in the United States: The number of cases reported in every chart and table is far too low.
The data are untrustworthy because the processes we used to get them were flawed. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions testing procedures missed the bulk of the cases. They focused exclusively on travelers, rather than testing more broadly, because that seemed like the best way to catch cases entering the country.
Just days ago, it was not clear that the virus had spread solely from domestic contact at all. But then cases began popping up with no known international connection. What public-health experts call community spread had arrived in the United States. The virus would not be stopped by tight borders, because it was already propagating domestically. Trevor Bedfords lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which studies viral evolution, concluded there is firm evidence that, at least in Washington State, the coronavirus had been spreading undetected for weeks. Now different projections estimate that 20 to 1,500 people have already been infected in the greater Seattle area. In California, too, the disease appears to be spreading, although the limited testing means that no one is quite sure how far.
In total, fewer than 500 people have been tested across the country (although the CDC has stopped reporting that number in its summary of the outbreak). As a result, the current official case count inside the United States stood at 43 as of this morning (excluding cruise-ship cases). This number is wrong, yet its still constantly printed and quoted. In other contexts, wed call this what it is: a subtle form of misinformation.
https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/03/official-coronavirus-numbers-are-wrong-and-everyone-knows-it/163508/
Backseat Driver
(4,394 posts)It's viral snapshot doesn't even look much like it's previously known cousins; now it more resembles a wind-blown dandelion ring-around the rosey-pocket full of poseys with those tufts sticking out of it. Hard to believe it just grew those tufted tentacles, making it far easier and capable of floating on the wind or sticking to physical or bodily surfaces, in one easy jump all by itself - remember, there's a kernel of truth behind every CT! Just another, "Who could have imagined?"
Karadeniz
(22,564 posts)Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)EVERYBODY BUT YOU, SHIT HEAD.