CDC, State Reporting of Virus Testing Data Causes Confusion | COVID-19

PROVIDENCE — Whether a second wave of infection is coming, as elected officials, businesses, and others rely on coronavirus testing and infection rate data when the elections resume, and You’ll see if there is the possibility of another home order or closure. necessary.

However, states report these numbers in different ways, which can be frustrating and confusing as to what they mean. In some areas, there are data gaps and local leaders are wondering if deregulation should be done or tightened. In other countries, authorities have been accused of turning numbers to make the state look better and justify resumption.

A continuing theme of outbreaks in the United States continues to lack federal government leadership. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have compiled tests that measure a variety of things.

Ashish Jha, head of the Global Health Institute at Harvard University, said that such errors indicate the number of Americans whose CDC numbers were “unintelligible” and who would make informed decisions. Creates a misleading situation.

“It’s their job to make sure that the Department of Health and the CDC provide accurate information, and if they can’t get it, don’t display the data at all,” Jha said. It was “Data flaws are much worse than no data.”

CDC and several state officials have combined virus tests that essentially detect active cases of the virus from the start of infection with antibody tests that check for proteins that develop more than a week after infection. Indicates whether the person was exposed at some point in the past.

Viral test results should be reported separately, public health experts say. This allows you to track the number of people who have an active infection, the percentage of people who have a positive reaction, and how those numbers change over time. All of these are important guidelines for public policy.

Mixing the results makes it difficult to understand how the virus spreads. It can give the false impression that the percentage of positive test results is declining.

When the CDC told the Associated Press on Friday that the problem began a few weeks ago, the agency began collecting data from the state using electronic reporting systems developed for other illnesses. Nearly every test result reported at that time was from a viral test. But over the next few weeks, antibody tests expanded and CDC officials noticed an increasing number of people mixed in with the virus’ results, said Dr. Daniel Pollock of the CDC.

According to Pollock, authorities are working on data segregation, a labor-intensive process that could take an additional 1-2 weeks. He admitted that the agency may have worked to fix the problem sooner.

“The hindsight is 20/20,” he said.

The AP has found that at least nine states have mixed results, or at some point as well. This includes Arizona, and Governor Doug Ducey used a graph showing the percentage reduction in positive tests earlier this month when he announced that barbers, salons, and restaurants could be reopened.

In a news conference on television, Duchy did not reveal that the numbers were a combination of diagnostics and antibody testing. According to published state data, the positive results of diagnostic tests were diminishing, but with the addition of antibody tests, the decline seemed more acute.

Some states have combined the results only slightly, saying it was unintentional. Delaware said it “shifted its focus” from virus testing to virus testing. Maine, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia say they have stopped compiling results, and Georgia is working on a fix.

But that practice continues in Mississippi and Pennsylvania.

In Georgia, antibody testing accounted for approximately 14% of the total, while in Mississippi it accounted for approximately 3%.

It is not clear how practices cloud the country’s big picture. The CDC told AP that it knew of the nine states that submitted the virus and antibody test data together, but the list included those numbers separately, including Alabama and Kansas. The states to be included are also included.

CDC also provided AP with a list of 18 states that reported only virus tests, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Vermont, all of which mixed two trials. I said I did.

Jennifer Nuzzo of the Johns Hopkins Health and Safety Center said many of the problems at the state level could be due to the challenges of deploying a disease surveillance system during the pandemic turmoil. In many cases, the health sector lacks current technology and relies on paper forms and other older systems.

Main officials say it is impossible to release a total number of tests more than once a week due to the need to collect data from multiple external labs that perform testing.

Rhode Island stopped updating certain data while migrating to more sophisticated computer systems. But the switch occurred because the condition was relaxing home restrictions and had one of the highest 14-day rates of new infections per capita in the population.

In some states it is difficult to understand trends in cases and deaths.

Iowa had previously posted new positive and dead cases every day, but stopped when the governor changed her focus to reopen the economy. Currently, the state website lists rolling totals. Anyone who wants to identify trends must do the math themselves.

The Governor of Kansas used to hold a media briefing that included daily positive test results and death reports, but stopped it in early May when she began a move to reopen.

Meanwhile, health authorities in Georgia, one of the first states to deregulate, published a graph showing dates that are out of chronological order, making the decline look smoother than it really is. The state health director vowed to do better.

Other states do not provide information on how a particular sector of the community is affected. In Nebraska, authorities have declined to confirm the number of cases associated with certain meat-packing plants that are hot spots for coronaviruses in some states.

Mr Nuzzo said COVID-19 has become political and is putting pressure on authorities to make state data look beautiful.

“It may be tempting to manipulate the numbers so they look more rosy than they really are,” she said. “But it’s a short-term strategy. You can’t hide a corpse.”