ANALYSIS\/OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This coronavirus is a sneaky devil. So sneaky, in fact, that it can even infiltrate test kits of individuals who\u2019ve not even submitted to being tested and then alert authorities to add these new positives, as they\u2019re then deemed, to COVID-19 case counts.<\/p>\n

Sneaky.<\/p>\n

Hmm. Or not.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a different notion: Maybe it\u2019s the testing site administrators who are the sneaky devils.<\/p>\n

Either way, in Florida, something strange is happening<\/a> with the coronavirus counts, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

Local news reports that several individuals have tested positive for the coronavirus \u2014 despite never having taken the test.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor [these] to come back positive, when there was no specimen submitted, is problematic,\u201d said Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox 13 Tampa Bay reported.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an understatement.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has tasked<\/a> the Department of Health to look into the \u201cmix-up,\u201d as Fox 13\u2019s headline termed it.<\/p>\n

America anxiously awaits the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does someone test positive for coronavirus if they have never been tested? Reports of this happening have been pouring into Fox 35 News since we began investigating COVID-19 data,\u201d the local news outlet wrote. \u201cPeople are claiming they went to get tested but for various reasons, had to leave before they were swabbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words: They went to a testing site, began the process of filing out forms and inputting their names, addresses, basic personal information, but then left before the actual test took place \u2014 only to learn they were then added to the \u201ccoronavirus positive\u201d count.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a mystery, all right.<\/p>\n

Fox 13 opined through a source that perhaps when the individual left the line, the testing authorities automatically reclassify the next in line as the number of the person who left and \u201cmistakenly\u201d put in the wrong name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey probably figure it out after one or two and say we got it wrong,\u201d the source said<\/a> to Fox 13, \u201cso they catch up [and fix it], but one or two people wind up getting somebody else\u2019s test results.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t make the coronavirus positive test counts any more accurate.<\/p>\n

Remember this? \u201cCNN and 11 states acknowledge mixing results of viral and antibody tests,\u201d CNN reported<\/a> in May. \u201cThe CDC says it\u2019s planning to separate those numbers in the coming weeks, but experts say the current method is unhelpful and potentially misleading. That\u2019s because antibody tests aren\u2019t used to diagnose current infection or determine whether someone is potentially contagious. Instead, they indicate whether someone has been exposed to the virus in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which changes the numbers.<\/p>\n

Which skews the counts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which makes the numbers untrustworthy.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the whole issue with this coronavirus chaos that\u2019s shutting down the country, killing the economy, closing schools, keeping church congregations from gathering and singing in worship, and face-masking an entire nation of free citizens: The numbers aren\u2019t accurate. They haven\u2019t been from the get-go. They aren\u2019t now.<\/p>\n

The numbers and statistics and percentages just can\u2019t be trusted.<\/p>\n

Hospitals report cases one way; governors report cases another way; federal health bureaucrats interpret numbers yet another way; computer models and best-guesses and what-ifs guide the numbers yet even another way.<\/p>\n

This Florida story just adds another question mark to the scores of question marks that hover over the entire COVID-19 madness.<\/p>\n

And no doubt, like all the other questions, this is one that won\u2019t be answered until well after the coronavirus has moved on \u2014 until well after America has been reshaped, repackaged and repurposed into something that\u2019s not very American at all \u2014 until well after our individual, civil and God-given rights have been refashioned into a \u201cnew normal\u201d of collectivism.<\/p>\n

Then we\u2019ll learn: It was all, oops, a simple mistake.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cheryl Chumley can be reached at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast \u201cBold and Blunt\u201d by\u00a0clicking HERE<\/a>. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by\u00a0clicking HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n