Wow, from reading this thread you’d think San Antonio was inflating its COVID case counts. That would be a big deal!

Here’s what’s actually happening. https://twitter.com/steveeagar/status/1283575782175014916

Like PCR tests, antigen tests also diagnose active coronavirus infections. It’s just a different kind of test that’s looking for other evidence of infection.

There have been huge backlogs with reporting results from PCR tests. The benefit with antigen tests is they provide rapid results.

The issue with them is false negatives. They have a higher likelihood of missing infections that are actually there.

Antigen tests are not to be confused with antibody tests, which look for evidence of past infections. A lot of antibody tests have been found to be unreliable, and that’s a different discussion entirely.

CDC includes probable cases, such as those identified via antigen testing, in its coronavirus counts.

Metro Health has been upfront about including antigen tests in their data in order to provide an accurate picture of our COVID outbreak. Officials have said they were included for weeks. It’s not a “mistake.”

They released a statement this afternoon:

By choosing to not include antigen testing in its counts, Texas DSHS is actually underreporting coronavirus case counts, excluding people who were identified through testing to be infected.

So why is @steveeagar implying that our health department is part of a conspiracy to inflate our COVID numbers with people who were, in his words, “never actually tested”?

Well, you’d have to ask him. But I think the replies speak for themselves.

Steve’s initial tweet, which includes none of this context, got 17k+ retweets and 19k+ likes. This is how misinformation spreads.

Props to @BeeDotMartin, who tried to explain this to him in his mentions, which look like a nightmare.

Now he’s trying to walk some of it back. Bit late for that!