(18.05.2020)

– The new testing data from the CDC, however, differs from official testing data reported by state health departments. In 29 states, the raw numbers fall within 10% of each other, while in 13 states, the data diverges by 25% or more. Adjusting for different reporting methodologies does not fully explain these differences.

– Small variations in these datasets are to be expected, but large gaps are cause for concern. For many states, the CDC publishes higher testing numbers than the states themselves report, which raises questions about the structure and integrity of both state and federal data reporting.

– Another point of contrast between the CDC’s new reporting and the official state data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project is that the CDC has not released historical, state-level testing data for the first three months of the outbreak. Until we can reconcile the
CDC’s new data with the state-reported data that makes up our historical dataset, the new data is of limited use to disease modelers and other COVID-19 data users.