Texas health officials are combining some antibody tests along with more common viral tests in statewide COVID-19 tracking data. Experts say this muddies the data and potentially helps pad testing numbers while giving the public a distorted view of the current spread of the virus.
As of Friday, Texas reported administering nearly 646,000 COVID-19 tests since March, and almost 45,200 cases of the virus. The data, published by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), appears to show the number of viral tests—that is, a swab of a person’s nose or throat to detect an active infection—and the number of positive cases connected to those tests. But mingled with the viral test numbers are antibody tests—which use a blood sample to determine if a person has developed antibodies to fight coronavirus—and their results. These tests are generally used to determine whether someone may have had the virus in the past, not necessarily whether they are currently infected.
It’s unclear what portion of the state’s case counts so far are based on antibody tests, but the co-mingling of the two types of tests raises questions about the validity of the state’s data, which has influenced efforts, largely by Republican government officials, to quickly reopen the state’s economy.
