MARSHALL COUNTY, Iowa — Two days after the state said they had fixed a 'horrifying' data glitch that skewed the coronavirus numbers being reported, some Iowans are still noticing things that don't add up.
Aubrey Does, a Marshall County native, has been analyzing coronavirus numbers in Marshall County to keep track of her county's trends since May.
After everything that's happened, Does said she doesn't feel data on the state's coronavirus website can be trusted.
"At this point, absolutely not," Does said. "But it's all that we have to go on. I feel like we're on really shaky ground with it, not having a good idea of whether the numbers are accurate or not."
Does first noticed something wrong in July, when the state started retroactively adding in past test results.
"I just didn't understand why the number of positives were changing, but the number of tests wasn't," Does said. "There were no backdated tests."
The problem: if someone tested positive for COVID-19 after testing negative at some point before, that positive result was being reported to the date they first got tested for the virus instead of the date they actually tested positive, according to Iowa State Epidemiologist Caitlin Pedati.
The state said the problem was fixed on Wednesday, but Does has noticed further issues since.
Does noticed the positivity rates throughout the different months changed after the gitch was fixed; positivity rates for April, May and July all went down, but rates for March, June and August went up.
When the data was fixed for Marshall County, and the test results were properly reassigned, Does says the state also added in 124 tests and 21 new positive cases that weren't there before.
The next day, according to Does, 20 tests had been removed from Marshall County's numbers, and 17 new positive cases had been added.
Wright County also saw its positivity rates change; following the fix, the 14-day positivity rate in Wright County dropped from 18% to 9%.
Nearly 80% of all Iowa counties saw a net decrease in their positivity rates.
We have asked the state why the numbers are still changing after this issue was reportedly resolved, but have yet to receive a response.