I believe it's highly likely now that numbers are being falsified.
I'm not here to point out numbers that are or are not being falsified. I'm here to point out the disparate difference between the media narrative and reality.
I believe it's highly likely now that numbers are being falsified.
Certainly, but common sense would now dictate that numbers are likely being falsified.I'm not here to point out numbers that are or are not being falsified. I'm here to point out the disparate difference between the media narrative and reality.
Certainly, but common sense would now dictate that numbers are likely being falsified.
104 out of 104 can't be flawed though. Don't you wonder why the "spikes" are occurring largely now in states with Repub gubners?Falsified assumes intent. I'm not sure I can say that. Flawed, perhaps.
104 out of 104 can't be flawed though. Don't you wonder why the "spikes" are occurring largely now in states with Repub gubners?
Florida update on 7/13...
Unless you were living under a rock or unplugged completely from social and main stream media, you've no doubt heart how Florida had a record day of cases. And by record, I don't just mean Florida's record. The whole country's record. As in the single, largest case count for a day by any state since the start of the crisis. See Worldometers chart:
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Now, right away when I look at this chart I question how a 50% increase in new cases happens one day over the next. Especially when you look at how we were running around the 10-10.5k a day since end of June. And then, wham! 15k. And I wish I could say definitively whether this is a data anomaly or whether the shit just hit the fan.
Those rushing to blame everything on DeSantis will no doubt choose the latter as their preferred narrative, and they may be right. But I prefer to actually investigate. Thus far, this is what I've seen:
First, as relevant as I suppose it is, the overall positive testing rate actually declined despite such a sharp increase in the reported cases.
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This is because the number of tests per day is up ~28% per day, week over week.
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Florida is now testing ~72,000 people a day. So with such an increase in testing, it is not surprising case counts will also take off.
Then there was this article from the local affiliate in Martin County (one of the epicenters of the virus around Miami):
‘Technical issue’ leads to negative coronavirus test underreporting
Feel free to read the article, but a few choice quotes are:
Positive COVID-19 cases are being promptly reported, but there are potentially thousands of negative COVID-19 test results that have yet to be reported to the Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Essentially positive results are being reported right away. Negative results are being backlogged and reported later down the road, sometimes significantly later. Now, some people think this is intentional to spike the count, but I don't believe it is malicious. I think that the labs are just overwhelmed and want to make sure people who test positive are informed right away so they can make maximum impact. I don't believe there's anything nefarious going on.
Still, this would greatly affect the overall positive/negative ratio. Not sure it would affect the case counts, but it could affect which days they are reported on if there is a backlog and a big catch up.
However, not being one to actually just take the article at its word, you can access the Florida Department of Health data (for July 10) manually here: http://ww11.doh.state.fl.us/comm/_partners/covid19_report_archive/state_reports_20200711.pdf
It is 48 pages long with lots of data. But at the bottom, it lists Testing By Laboratory, and the detail for each lab, along with positive, negative tests, % positive and the number of overall tests.
If you scroll down, you'll see results like this:
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There are actually several hundred labs at 100% positive. Now, some of these only tested 1 patient. But for the others, are we supposed to believe 104 people were tested and there wasn't one negative person? Really?
To say the positive tests and case counts are overstated might be academic at this point. There are also cases (this is anecdotal) where people claim to have gone to test, but because it was an hour wait they left because they didn't want to wait, only to receive their results later that week saying they tested positive. I am tempted to go to a testing facility just to try this out and see what my results are. Sign up, wait and don't take the test.
It's highly likely now that numbers are being falsified.I take it that this is what "winning" looks like to DeSantis. Record cases, ICUs running out of capacity and rising deaths.
Just because a particular lab shows a 100% positive results does not mean that anything nefarious going on (to use your term). There are different types of labs involved here. A lab located in a hospital where they only test admitted patients that are displaying COVID-19 symptoms are likely to have results near or at 100% positive. A drive through location offering free tests is likely to have results in the 3% to 20% positive range. A government health department doing contact tracing or a lab focused on pre-screening for elective surgery probably has results in the 1% to 3% positive range. There needs to be a better understanding of the type and association of a lab doing tests to make any observations about their positive rates.
I have referenced the daily Florida Health reports in pdf format on the Florida DOH website multiple times -- to ask the question - "Why does the information posted on the Florida COVID-19 portal disagree with the daily Florida reports?" The media has asked this question for at least two months as well. So far the state of Florida has no provide a reasonable explanation of discrepancies. One can possibly understand the information in the recent few days not being sync'ed up but data over two weeks old should be aligned.
I take it that this is what "winning" looks like to DeSantis. Record cases, ICUs running out of capacity and rising deaths.
Just because a particular lab shows a 100% positive results does not mean that anything nefarious going on (to use your term). There are different types of labs involved here. A lab located in a hospital where they only test admitted patients that are displaying COVID-19 symptoms are likely to have results near or at 100% positive. A drive through location offering free tests is likely to have results in the 3% to 20% positive range. A government health department doing contact tracing or a lab focused on pre-screening for elective surgery probably has results in the 1% to 3% positive range. There needs to be a better understanding of the type and association of a lab doing tests to make any observations about their positive rates.
I have referenced the daily Florida Health reports in pdf format on the Florida DOH website multiple times -- to ask the question - "Why does the information posted on the Florida COVID-19 portal disagree with the daily Florida reports?" The media has asked this question for at least two months as well. So far the state of Florida has no provide a reasonable explanation of discrepancies. One can possibly understand the information in the recent few days not being sync'ed up but data over two weeks old should be aligned.