Our current administration doesn't believe in the data and science they tout. They have a narrative and they stick to it.Packchem91 said:
So for our data guys who have been tracking this and the impact of the data on our general local government response.....I see the CDC has said asymptomatic do not need to be tested, is that right?
Which tends to fly in the face of what NC leaders have been saying with the "test, test, test" mantra?
And won't that impact the ever-important % positive testing metric? If general public no longer needs to get tested, and we're really only testing those with symptoms, would seem the % positive would increase again (even if total cases, hospitalizations, deaths decrease)??
The '% positive' metric is a bit over valued.
The % positive in a congregate outbreak (prison, LTC, dorm) MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT
than the % positive of patients with CLI seeking care in an ED which MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT
than the % positive of a random sampling of a population WHICH MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT
than the % positive of a group of people who you basically know to be negative but are just pumping test numbers.
The problem is that each of these things CAN have value on their own to show trends, impact, etc. When you throw them all in one 'percent positive' pot, the story each tells gets very muddy.
The problem I have with the percent positive metric, is that the number '5%' means nothing on its own. Maybe that is a valuable for hospital setting (probably where it originated) but when you throw an outbreak in you will increase it, when you throw random people being tested for no reason, you are likely to decrease it.
The problem is that throwing all these random tests taken in different environments and under different conditions is that they DEVALUE the percent positive metric. They each can tell different stories and should be allowed to do so. An arbitrary metric which can be manipulated is dumb.
So, yes, it is possible that by reducing asymptomatic testing we could increase the % positive. We should be tracking percent positives separately. ED % and General Sampling % THEN ADDITIONALLY contained outbreaks (prison, LTC, dorm) should not be included in those since they do not represent widespread community but rather closed outbreaks.
