21,343 cases of COVID-19 in South Africa

R13...

R13...

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
42,153
Gordon_R said:
If they actually tested properly, they would find 5-10 times more. The official figures are about as useful as week old JSE share prices...
Click to expand...
What is testing properly? Everyone grumbles but I'm yet to see if workable alternatives to the way government carries on.
 
Gordon_R

Gordon_R

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
Messages
19,657
R13... said:
What is testing properly? Everyone grumbles but I'm yet to see if workable alternatives to the way government carries on.
Click to expand...

I'm merely making an observation, not suggesting how the government should do testing. It is obvious that the backlogs and lack of the promised testing capacity make any official numbers useless.
 
netstrider

netstrider

Expert Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
3,320
Gordon_R said:
I'm merely making an observation, not suggesting how the government should do testing. It is obvious that the backlogs and lack of the promised testing capacity make any official numbers useless.
Click to expand...
Less useful.
 
Gordon_R

Gordon_R

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
Messages
19,657
netstrider said:
Less useful.
Click to expand...

No. When facts are presented based on varying protocols, with unknown backlogs, and a large number of asymptomatic infections, those numbers are misleading. Any decisions based on those are distorted and lead to wrong actions. IMO that is not less useful, its BS...

Last week they stopped doing the much heralded community testing, because it simply added to the burden of backlogs, and provided no useful information. Does that make the figures better or worse? Are those facts included in the daily press releases?

Edit: I would go further, and suggest stopping publishing the daily cases would actually be more constructive. Rather report the numbers in quarantine, the numbers in hospital, the numbers in ICU. People can relate to that, rather than the total number which becomes so big as to be incomprehensible.
 
netstrider

netstrider

Expert Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
3,320
Gordon_R said:
No. When facts are presented based on varying protocols, with unknown backlogs, and a large number of asymptomatic infections, those numbers are misleading. Any decisions based on those are distorted and lead to wrong actions. IMO that is not less useful, its BS...

Last week they stopped doing the much heralded community testing, because it simply added to the burden of backlogs, and provided no useful information. Does that make the figures better or worse? Are those facts included in the daily press releases?

Edit: I would go further, and suggest stopping publishing the daily cases would actually be more constructive. Rather report the numbers in quarantine, the numbers in hospital, the numbers in ICU. People can relate to that, rather than the total number which becomes so big as to be incomprehensible.
Click to expand...
I actually agree with you.

What I am saying is having some data, when all of this is done, is better than having none. Even if testing was done at 1/12 of what is necessary (arbitrary thumb-sucked figure there).
 
D

/dev/null

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2017
Messages
1,187
It's good to see that the numbers are climbing and the resultant effect is that the health system is starting to see proper activity. All will be well so long as the health system does not get overwhelmed. We went into a lockdown to protect this health system, so everything should be fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top