After an investigation by local media outlet Fox 35 in Orlando, Florida, it has been revealed that the supposed positivity rates in Coronavirus testings have been grossly exaggerated in many hospitals.
The investigation was conducted after several facilities reported unusually high numbers of positive results, including a 100 percent positivity rate at an Orlando Centra Care (where all 83 people tested came back positive), and an 88 percent positivity rate at NCF Diagnostics.
Upon getting in contact with several other facilities, Fox 35 found that the Florida Department of Health had either deliberately exaggerated or unintentionally misinterpreted several of the numbers. Although Orlando Health had been reported to have a positivity rate of 98 percent, representatives of the facility confirmed to the news outlet that their positivity rate was actually a mere 9.4 percent.
Similarly, the Orlando Veteran’s Medical Center, which had been reported with a positivity rate of 76 percent, confirmed to the news outlet that theirs was a positivity rate of only 6 percent.
When the Florida Department of Health was confronted with these figures, a spokesperson claimed that such smaller medical facilities had failed to report their negative test numbers and had only included the positives in their reports, which would contribute to the misreporting of 100 percent positivity rates.
In recent weeks, the mainstream media has attempted to paint Florida as the new epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, citing such numbers as the alleged increase in positive cases. However, in addition to this new research debunking those numbers, the state of Florida has still managed to keep its death toll significantly low, especially compared to other states that have been ravaged by the disease such as New York.