The New York Times is reporting:
The preliminary data suggests that many more New Yorkers may have been infected than was previously believed.
More than one in five people who were tested for virus antibodies in N.Y.C. had them.
More than 21 percent of around 1,300 people in New York City who were tested for coronavirus antibodies this week were found to have them, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday.
The results were from a state program that tested 3,000 supermarket customers across New York State. Nearly 14 percent of the tests came back positive, Mr. Cuomo said.
It was unclear just how telling the preliminary data was, as Mr. Cuomo acknowledged. And the accuracy of the antibody testing available in the United States in general has been called into question.
Antibody tests are intended to signal whether a person may have built immunity to virus. They do not test for the virus itself.
But if the state’s numbers indicated the true incidence of the virus, they would mean that more than 1.7 million people in New York City, and more than 2.6 million people statewide, have already been infected.
That is far greater than the 250,000 confirmed cases of the virus itself that the state has recorded.
It would also mean that the fatality rate from the virus was relatively low, about 0.5 percent, Mr. Cuomo said.
In other words, it is just another flu season.
Via livescience:
These tests were conducted over a two-day period at grocery stores and other big box stores. “The sample was by definition people who were outside the home,” Cuomo said.
It appears someone has smartened up and they are conducting the test in a proper manner to get relevant data. All the other data that is being discussed by nearly every media talking head and government official should just be thrown in the garbage. You do not need a medical license to see this.