Thread by @jamewils

Let us talk about testing data, in the context of Delhi's curious case of opacity!

Why public should know the testing data through Government authentic channels?

It helps their citizens and researchers to assess the extent and significance of their testing efforts.

It is more important is to make the available data findable.

It is every important that the available data should be easy to find, it should not be at unpredictable intervals in ad-hoc locations!

Rather than disclosing to a few journalists, data should be Govt's channels!

For citizens to trust and understand the published data, and for epidemiologists to incorporate the data into the models that inform public policy, it is crucial to provide the data on testing in a clearly documented way.

Right to know is a fundamental right!

When Government publishes data, it needs to be clear whether or not figures for the total number of tests performed, or the number of people tested, include negative test results, as well as the number of tests that are pending results.

Globally researchers are batting for this

Now come back to the problem, I started to chase the testing data in the last week of March, around the time Government announced the lockdown.

I was really taken aback by the fact ICMR, being the premier research organisation of the country, gives a single para press release!

There was no State wise testing figures! It contains total number of people tested, the number of people tested and number of positives - all cumulative.

But there was no disclosure that when they start counting this data.

No State wise figures to know how it was distributed

This shows the anathema to the public to know the bare minimum information, they required about the pandemic and how the Government is doing to ensure that how #COVID19 is distributed over the country.

Tryst of the Union Govt with data is so notorious, we seen that during Demon

So I decided to look at the data being published by various State Governments and Union Territory Administrations.

For majority of the States, the information was hidden deep inside somewhere & no link was available on their health dept site to lead us where info is available!

I found that it is easy to find data of all South Indian States and West Bengal. Regular updates with enough updates & very transparent

So I started tweeting about both number of tests as well as representative testing, from whichever States I gather this important data

I published an article on @thewire_in on 29th March, its headline is not truly reflecting the testing issue I tried to address.

I was able to trawl & scrap 20 states data then, out of 36 entities.

thewire.in/government/wan…

That time I observed that from South, Telangana stopped publishing data after 26th March, curiously they changed to a new web address too w/o redirecting us from old address to the new one.

This is a case with some others too, but I am here to discuss Delhi alone for now

Why Delhi?

Because Delhi is ruled by AAP, a party who taken the public imagination of India as a party with the difference.

Though I became skeptical about their tactics from day 1, like blaming then Delhi CM for rapes in Delhi, etc, I was ready to give them benefit of doubt.

Why skeptical?

Because Arvind Kejriwal came from within the system & he knows very well the Constitutional limitations being an All India Service Officer.

Why given benefit of doubt?

I bought the argument that issues shoud be blow up disproportional to catch public imagination

But as days passed, I started to see that my instincts are proven right despite free electiricity, mohalla clinics and education reforms.

Deep underlying tendencies for spending too much on advertisements, promoting cult culture, creating a panopticon State, etc were distrubing

How they adopted Aadhaar and their craziness for CCTV survillance without checks and balances were really worrying.

They shown the same contempt & arrogance of UPA-2 against listening to the sane voices from Civil Society!

I flagged this with a couple of AAP leaders in private