LogFAQs > #936157054

The anecdotes of people feeling ill and suspecting COVID-19 are so frustrating because there could be truth to them, but there are some issues that need to be contended with in those cases.

Most states are reporting significantly higher negative tests than positive. Especially widespread disease like what is being said would be lighting up on asymptomatic people far more than these are showing. My own state is sitting at 290 positives on 4,470 tests (source: https://covidtracking.com/data/ )

The only other possibility to corroborate the anecdotes is that the majority of these negatives have already somehow cleared infection, in which case an antibody test would obviously be far more helpful. It's implausible, but given the enormous suspected variability in people's responses to infection, I guess it would have to be considered.

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Essy