Clare Craig claims that 10% of all respiratory samples in England are positive for RSV, more than covid.
Needless to say she's wrong on every count, because she didn't understand or sanity check the data she was looking at before posting. As usual.
Needless to say she's wrong on every count, because she didn't understand or sanity check the data she was looking at before posting. As usual.
https://twitter.com/ClareCraigPath/status/1418216023598133254
For starters it's 8.9%, not 10%. And that's of samples that were tested for RSV, not all the samples logged by Respiratory Datamart.
The vast majority of the 100,000 samples will have been tests done for covid. Only a handful would be from RSV tests.
The vast majority of the 100,000 samples will have been tests done for covid. Only a handful would be from RSV tests.
https://twitter.com/kallmemeg/status/1418862668820144136?s=19
That's because hospitals routinely screen all admissions for covid, whereas patients (mostly infants) are only tested for RSV if a doctor specifically asks for it.
Hardly surprising then that positivity is much higher for RSV tests than for covid tests.
Hardly surprising then that positivity is much higher for RSV tests than for covid tests.
https://twitter.com/ShamezLadhani/status/1418879217761128453?s=19
So we're looking at 2 different sets of tests, with different test criteria and populations.
Any comparison between positivity rates for these viruses is largely meaningless without knowing how many tests were done for each.
There were only 2,191 influenza tests, for example.
Any comparison between positivity rates for these viruses is largely meaningless without knowing how many tests were done for each.
There were only 2,191 influenza tests, for example.
If Clare had actually read the whole report, this should have been clear.
Aside from that flu note, if 8.9% of all 102,167 samples really were RSV positive, that would be 9,000 cases!
But elsewhere the report clearly shows only about 120 people were admitted with RSV that week.
Aside from that flu note, if 8.9% of all 102,167 samples really were RSV positive, that would be 9,000 cases!
But elsewhere the report clearly shows only about 120 people were admitted with RSV that week.
It's not the first time this week Clare has rather obviously misinterpreted data from the Respiratory Datamart.
Earlier she claimed there was a discrepancy between Datamart (1.7%) and Pillar 2 symptomatic (30%) positivity.
Earlier she claimed there was a discrepancy between Datamart (1.7%) and Pillar 2 symptomatic (30%) positivity.
https://twitter.com/ClareCraigPath/status/1417887899773767691?s=19
But Datamart only counts samples from 16 PHE and NHS labs. Which are Pillar 1, not Pillar 2.
And the Datamart graph she posted almost perfectly matches the Pillar 1 positivity (solid line) graph from the same report.
Because Datamart is reporting a subset of the Pillar 1 data.
And the Datamart graph she posted almost perfectly matches the Pillar 1 positivity (solid line) graph from the same report.
Because Datamart is reporting a subset of the Pillar 1 data.
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