Doing the most testing = current rate of testing

Have done the most test = total number of tests

Difference is a rate (tests per day) versus an amount (total tests)

This post was edited by Thor123422 on May 15 2020 12:23pm

so a country with a minuscule population like the Vatican would be doing the most testing then. basically invalidating the statistic in a context where you'd care about it.

This post was edited by thesnipa on May 15 2020 12:38pm

Well, of course test numbers have to be considered per capita and not in absolute terms.

The United States having performed 10.8m tests while Belgium has 645k cannot be meaningfully compared unless you keep in mind that the US have a population of 330m and Belgium just 11m, so per capita, Belgium has performed 70% more tests.

And Thor is right that testing has to be weighted by time. For example, Germany is currently using just 40% of its weekly testing capacity, and is testing less than a month ago - simply because the numbers have already gone down so much.
On top, when comparing testing numbers, we also have to distinguish between countries that are limited by their testing capacities and those that are not.

hmmm... that seems to be a really difficult question (at least for some):

what's the relevant metric to describe a nation's testing (assuming we're talking about the same quality / standard of tests performed, which already is incorrect)? total tests performed, or tests per capita? answers on a postcard...

We can exclude places where it's obvious that the results aren't meaningful, like the Vatican where all the citizens are employees of the church.

Basically, we aren't seeing a wide spread in our country because we are doing the most testing ("we have the most cases because we are doing the most testing"), we are actually doing less testing per capita than other countries and still show a high spread, and we only have a need to do so much testing now because we allowed a spread by not having sufficient testing capacity earlier (in contrast to South Korea, which has done much less testing than us because they needed to do less testing).



Based on the referenced comments it seems like Trump would have preferred a wild spread rate, immediate herd immunity, and zero testing so he could save face by hiding behind very few confirmed cases.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on May 15 2020 12:55pm

test numbers per capita are important to evaluate testing.

total number of tests are important to evaluate how we're doing on number of cases compared to the rest of the world as well tho.

and if a reporter asks "we see reports now that the USA has more positive cases than any other country, what are your thoughts on that Mr Trump?", "part of the reason we have the most positive cases is because we're testing the most of any country" is a valid partial answer. it's not complete to evaluate why we have more cases per capita than other first world countries, but it's a valid answer for why we have more positive case results than more populous countries such as China, India, Russia, Indonesia, etc.

this entire topic sprung from that very question, paraphrased of course but that was basically the context Trump was asked in. he's half right, and avoiding why we're worse than South Korea or Japan, but he's not entirely wrong as the OP seemed to suggest. nor is total number of tests done a useless metric. its basically half of the useful metrics we have.

This post was edited by thesnipa on May 15 2020 01:03pm

Couldnt he have given this exact answer? "Why does the USA have more positive cases than any other country, your thoughts mr president?" - "We're having more cases because we are a much bigger country. Per capita, other countries like Spain or Ireland are much worse off."

he could give a lot of examples, but phrases like "per capita" dont play well with his base. science/math is fake news.

Is there public information for comparing "current rate of testing?" Because what I know is the US got a very late start, and I have a hard time believing we got out to this sheer-numbers lead by not having the most tests per day.

This post was edited by Santara on May 15 2020 01:27pm

This tickles me in so many ways. Talk all the shit you want about trump but bidens a total moron too.... cant even count.