Fox 35 has found errors in the positivity rate of coronavirus infections from Florida testing sites that look to be skewing it a lot higher that it should be:
ERRORS FOUND: Florida's positivity rate is skewed. #FOX35 went through #COVID19 test reports & found many clinics reporting 100% positivity. @orlandohealth admits their number is wrong, saying it shows 98% positive, but it's actually 9.4%. @fox35orlando https://t.co/NgFuXjw5OS
— Amy Kaufeldt (@Fox35Amy) July 14, 2020
Here’s more:
FOX 35 – The Florida Department of Health released its daily coronavirus testing report showing a statewide positivity rate of 11 percent, but FOX 35 News investigated and quickly noticed some shocking positivity rates.
Countless labs have reported a 100 percent positivity rate, which means every single person tested was positive. Other labs had very high positivity rates. FOX 35 found that testing sites like Centra Care reported that 83 people were tested and all tested positive. Then, NCF Diagnostics in Alachua reported 88 percent of tests were positive.
How could that be? FOX 35 News investigated these astronomical numbers, contacting every local location mentioned in the report.
The report showed that Orlando Health had a 98 percent positivity rate. However, when FOX 35 News contacted the hospital, they confirmed errors in the report. Orlando Health’s positivity rate is only 9.4 percent, not 98 percent as in the report.
The report also showed that the Orlando Veteran’s Medical Center had a positivity rate of 76 percent. A spokesperson for the VA told FOX 35 News on Tuesday that this does not reflect their numbers and that the positivity rate for the center is actually 6 percent.
FOX 35 News has yet to hear from the other labs or the Florida Department of Health to explain how the error could have been made on an official report.
I don’t know if these are just errors or if someone with an agenda is changing them, but I hope the governor and his team push to ensure that these errors get resolved. Accurate reporting on this matters a great deal, especially when the news media loves to promote panic.