Genka Shikerova with uncomfortable questions about the data on the coronavirus in our country

These questions are asked by journalist Genka Shikerova on the social network Facebook.

“Did you know that after the 14th day of quarantine, if you do a PCR test and it comes back positive, you are in quarantine again, but it is not clear who will give you sick leave?

If you are in home treatment and on day 14 you still feel bad, it is the same: you should go to the doctor. In general, the crisis is driven by thought and analysis ”. The journalist also published an article with her own research on Free Europe.

There are serious shortcomings in the way data is collected. For example, a number of people “cured” of COVID-19 are reported every day. You probably expect this to be the number of people who have been successfully treated for a coronavirus infection. However, it turns out that this is not the case. This definition also includes people who have not been to a hospital or seen by a doctor. There are even those who have not taken any drugs, she reveals.

The number of PCR tests performed may also not accurately reflect reality, Since people who tested positive in different labs can be reported as different cases in the statistics, it is clear from the research. The absolute number of PCR tests performed since the beginning of the epidemic is close to one million, writes the information portal. Data on “new cases” is also reported each day and a percentage of the total number of tests is displayed. This should provide information about the spread of the epidemic between people, but in practice it does not provide this information.
The next problem that leads to the distortion of the statistics is the possible positive tests of the same person.
The reason is that a person can perform multiple tests and they are counted as a series of tests, not as controls, out of the total number. That is, we know the number of tests, but we do not know the number of people who were tested. The next problem that leads to the distortion of the statistics is the possible positive tests of the same person. Is this another contagion in the statistics? “We cannot detect that a person has a second positive test if they have performed a test in another laboratory,” the director of one of the large laboratories, Dr. Nedyalko Kalachev, explained to Free Europe.

In recent weeks, more and more people are starting to get an antigen test. The main reason is that these types of tests are cheaper, faster, have a high degree of reliability and, last but not least, antigen tests are not subject to mandatory monitoring. With the stipulation that this is his subjective observation, because it is only for one laboratory, Dr. Kalachev said that “on Wednesday (November 25 – ba) we did 400 PCR and 200 antigens, of which 33 percent were positive “.

Labs also submit data on antigen test results, but for unknown reasons it is not processed as a database and is not published on the Unified Information Portal.
“From the data published in the Unified Information Portal, it is clear that there is no single methodology. This, combined with the lack of a comprehensive information system for reporting and tracking patients, raises serious questions about whether these numbers reflect reality, “said data analyst Boyan Yurukov. According to him what is published is “information that the health authorities manage to collect”, but it cannot be analyzed with precision, established the investigation. More: Important questions about the coronavirus that we did not receive a satisfactory answer to