One reason why the reported infections are so low could be because the test kits are hard to get and unreliable . . .
The traditional nucleic acid test identifies the virus in a patient’s body through its specific genetic sequence, but reports of a severe lack of test kits and the unreliability of test results have circulated since the start of the crisis.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that test kits shipped to labs across the country and around the world have had problems detecting the virus.
“A patient may be found as negative for the first or second test, and then found to be positive the third time,” said Jonathan Yu, a doctor at a university hospital in Wuhan, in an interview. “It is like fishing in a pond: You did not catch a fish once, but that does not mean the pond does not have fish.”
So China has changed their definition of coronavirus diagnosis. Now in China you only have coronavirus if you have severe pneumonia. On that basis, the number people with the disease on the Diamond Princess is zero.
