# 3869
Revere over at Effect Measure takes an in depth look at a story I wrote about yesterday; a CBS investigative report on whether swine flu cases are overestimated.
As the Revere does today, In my piece CBS Investigation: Swine Flu Cases Overestimated?, I took considerable issue with the CBS stance that the cessation of H1N1 testing by the CDC was somehow folly.
I wrote, in part:
This investigative report, however, seems to make a big deal over the CDC’s decision to halt individual testing for the H1N1 virus over the summer.
While – in a perfect world – I’d prefer to see every suspected influenza-like-illness tested with state of the art PCR testing, that simply isn’t practical.
State & CDC labs were overwhelmed very early in this outbreak with demands for testing, and could never have hoped to keep up. Which is why I find far less to criticize about the CDC’s decision on reduced testing than does this investigative report.
I then spent some time explaining why lab results from the states, particularly early in the summer, likely yielded inaccurate numbers. As I stated - my level of comfort with the numbers we have, particularly early in the outbreak, is less than supreme.
While I may have been somewhat more charitable in my criticisms of this story - Revere goes into much greater depth on this `investigation’ than I - and properly (and quite satisfyingly) skewers the unwarranted `spin’ in this report.
Read:
CBS News on swine flu testing: Fail!
