Tangential, but has Florida started accurately reporting their cases, hospitalizations and deaths instead of under-reporting them?
AFAIK, the only underreporting they are doing is not counting positive tests as cases unless the person is a permanent Florida resident, while everyone else is counting tests conducted in-state. Which is significant, but really only effects the case count.
(They may be doing a bad job of actually doing testing, too, but that’s not underreporting though it has a similar effect. But, again AFAIK, hospitalization and death numbers aren’t impacted.)
Doesn't matter IMO. What matters is the change-in-percent. If Florida's "undercount" is 300% higher this week than last week, that's all the evidence we need, as long as the "undercount" remained consistent.
The exact number isn't important. Its the change in numbers we can look at and rely upon. If you don't trust the numbers, you can still trust the change-in-numbers.
Its not important to get exact numbers. Its more important to remain consistent in your reporting through these crisis. We care about apples-to-apples comparisons within the state, not against different states. A 300% rise is a 300% rise.
You need 95% of your cases to be negative if you expect any accuracy in your case%. If you're at 10% positive or 15% positive, then if you double your testing, you double your cases.
10% positive suggests a testing-kit shortage. That's what's going on in my state, we've begun to ration testing-kits. We only give out testing kits to those with symptoms.
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At some point, your hospital systems favor the individual's health over accurate reporting of statistics. Under such circumstances, it becomes important to use alternative measures for how bad the surge is. Focusing on "% change" is one of the most effective ways of factoring in this issue.