Recently, we have heard that too much testing for Covid-19 "makes us look bad" because "it increases the number of Covid-19 cases". Thence, the Fallacy of suggesting that testing less is a solution.
Testing (or the lack thereof) is not a Democratic or Republican issue, it is a Public Health issue that involves the mis-application of a statistical concept. Testing for Covid-19 has two effects:
One is statistical: testing is used to obtain an estimate of percent Covid-19 infection in the community (prevalence). Such percent does not increase with the number of tests done, but with the rising levels of infection. This is a statistical fact.
Secondly, it has an important medical use. By identifying those subjects who are infected, these can be quaranteened, and contact tracing can be done to isolate further potential infection vectors, which reduces potential community spread as well as the index R (of infection spread). This is a Public Health fact.
Professional organizations such as the ASA, the American Medical Association, etc., as active members of Civil Society have an obligation to the general public to clarify mis-conceptions and mis-uses of their methods and theories. It is not necessary to take a political side; just state the facts.
This is a proposal to our ASA colleagues, as individual members of our communities, and to the ASA Board, for an ASA action.
I am personally working on this: https://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/Covid-19Proposal2020.pdf
Thanks/Jorge.------------------------------
Jorge L. Romeu
Emeritus SUNY Faculty
Adjunct Professor, Syracuse U.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge_Romeu------------------------------