The Atlantic: How Virginia Juked Its COVID-19 Statistics

Reporting COVID-19 data is important for tracking the spread, testing, and recovery across the United States, however a lack of federal guidelines on how to report the data is causing huge variations in how states report. In Virginia, officials are combining results from antibody tests and viral tests even though the two COVID-19 tests give completely different information. The antibody test has a lagged result and therefore people who are positive are likely no longer infectious. The virus test, on the other hand, gives positive results for patients who are most likely still infectious. This allows Virginia to portray itself as having more favorable results with more testing and tracking than other states. Click here to read the full article.