What we don ' t know is hurting us

Back when CDC had a real director, his name was Tom Frieden. He now heads an organization called Resolve to Save Lives, which has come out with a report on the woeful state of reporting by the states on important data about the Covid-19 pandemic.Indicators critical to understanding the pandemic ’s course were often missing, it found. Not a single state currently reports the average turnaround time of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, as press reports abound of tests in many regions taking a week or more to come back, a delay that renders testing nearly useless in controlling th e disease’s spread. The test positivity rate goes unreported by 25% of states.The test positivity rate is probably the single most important parameter -- it tells us if the state is doing enough testing, and gives an indication of the prevalence in the population. Also broadly lacking is data on contact tracing, and data that is reported is often unclear because of a lack of standard definitions. Of course we know why this is:Despite good work by many states and a “tsunami of data points,” he said, “because of the lack of national leadership, we don’t have common standards, definitions, targets, or accountability.”The US is “flying blind,” he said, questioning the current “obsession” with higher test numbers. If results are taking several days, if positive cases are rarely isolated, and if contacts are almost never warned, he said, then “we really have done very little goo...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs