Truth be told, with most "cases" being solely the result of a PCR test, contrary to all prior established practice, which defines a case as symptoms CONFIRMED by a diagnostic test, most of the case counts in the west are overstated by as much as 90%.
However, Austria's 64% is the highest "first world" number we have, and it's well below w…
Truth be told, with most "cases" being solely the result of a PCR test, contrary to all prior established practice, which defines a case as symptoms CONFIRMED by a diagnostic test, most of the case counts in the west are overstated by as much as 90%.
However, Austria's 64% is the highest "first world" number we have, and it's well below what China is claiming. If Austria is overstated (probable), the China's 80% claim becomes even more improbable.
I've never understood why someone who isn't sick would get tested. OK, there was *some* mandatory testing of healthy people in certain occupations, but it wasn't all that prevalent.
Then again, I'm sure there are plenty of people who were sick and never got tested, or more recently, people who were sick but just did a lateral flow test and are thus reasonably confident they had it, but never reported it to any "authority". I know a few people in the latter camp. Bottom line: I don't think any country has a good handle on what portion of their population has actually been infected.
As for why people chose to get tested, the reasons may vary: some employers may have mandated it (even without government mandates), and others simply succumbed to the fear porn from the corporate media.
What we do have are numbers of tests administered, and the positivity rates (although without the Ct values for PCR tests).
As it turns out, Austria not only has the highest number of COVID cases relative to population size....
Thus one reason Austria reports so many cases is they were hell-bent on looking for the virus.
At this level of testing, while it is possible some cases might have been overlooked, false positives seems a more likely outcome. That would make Austria's 64% infected figure an overstatement--which makes China's 80% even more fantastical.
Truth be told, with most "cases" being solely the result of a PCR test, contrary to all prior established practice, which defines a case as symptoms CONFIRMED by a diagnostic test, most of the case counts in the west are overstated by as much as 90%.
However, Austria's 64% is the highest "first world" number we have, and it's well below what China is claiming. If Austria is overstated (probable), the China's 80% claim becomes even more improbable.
I've never understood why someone who isn't sick would get tested. OK, there was *some* mandatory testing of healthy people in certain occupations, but it wasn't all that prevalent.
Then again, I'm sure there are plenty of people who were sick and never got tested, or more recently, people who were sick but just did a lateral flow test and are thus reasonably confident they had it, but never reported it to any "authority". I know a few people in the latter camp. Bottom line: I don't think any country has a good handle on what portion of their population has actually been infected.
As for why people chose to get tested, the reasons may vary: some employers may have mandated it (even without government mandates), and others simply succumbed to the fear porn from the corporate media.
What we do have are numbers of tests administered, and the positivity rates (although without the Ct values for PCR tests).
As it turns out, Austria not only has the highest number of COVID cases relative to population size....
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_per_million&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~DEU~FRA~AUT
...by a couple orders of magnitude it also has the highest test rate (tests per 1,000 people)
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_per_million&Metric=Tests&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~DEU~FRA~AUT
As a result of this emphasis within Austria on testing, Austria also has the highest number of tests per diagnosed case of COVID.
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_per_million&Metric=Tests+per+case&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~DEU~FRA~AUT
Which, ironically, gives Austria a relatively low proportion of daily tests that are positive.
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_per_million&Metric=Share+of+positive+tests&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~DEU~FRA~AUT
Thus one reason Austria reports so many cases is they were hell-bent on looking for the virus.
At this level of testing, while it is possible some cases might have been overlooked, false positives seems a more likely outcome. That would make Austria's 64% infected figure an overstatement--which makes China's 80% even more fantastical.