Georgia health officials to fix reported data after count is inflated by 57,000 tests
The Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed Wednesday night that 57,000, or a little more than 14%, of the state’s total coronavirus tests did not measure active infections after a McClatchy article revealed the practice.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that DPH Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey was surprised by the practice and the Governor’s Office has requested that the department remove antibody tests from the state’s totals.
“It’s not really an error. It’s a way it was collected,” Toomey told the AJC. “I didn’t fully appreciate how many antibody tests have been done.”
McClatchy reported Wednesday morning that data on the Georgia Department of Public Health’s website listing the total number of tests performed includes both antibody and viral tests for the novel coronavirus. The two tests are not the same. Antibody tests tell signs of previous infections while viral tests identify those who are currently infected.
A person who tests positive only for the antibodies in Georgia is listed as a probable case, rather than a confirmed infection, according to state health officials. That information is not published on the website.
In a statement Thursday, the state health department said it would remove antibody testing from its total test counts.
“The data team is working on that now,” said Nancy Nydam, a spokesperson for the state health department. “Until we finalize how the antibody testing will be displayed and taken out of the total test number, there will be a message on the current dashboard indicating that the antibody tests are included in total tests, but positives are not included in the COVID-19 positive case tally.”
Public health experts say the practice artificially raised Georgia’s testing totals and artificially lowered the state’s percentage of positive tests.
“You’re putting apples and oranges together and calling them oranges,” Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a clinical associate professor at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, previously told McClatchy. “You’re mixing two different tests. ...All that does is over-inflate the testing number.
“If anything, it skews those numbers to make it appear like the level of disease relative to testing is actually dropping much more dramatically than it is.”
Georgia is not the only state where a similar practice was occurring. Texas, Vermont and Pennsylvania are combining both results. Virginia was doing this but has since stopped, several media outlets have reported.
The Atlantic Magazine and WLRN, a Miami radio station, report the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are mixing the results for both tests as well.
As of 1 p.m. Thursday, Georgia reported 407,731 tests, but the state website now includes a disclaimer that antibody tests are included in the count.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 8:37 PM.