RALEIGH – Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) has advocated for random sample testing to scientifically estimate how many people in the population at large have COVID-19 and the true fatality rate. Berger says antibody tests are needed to estimate how many people had had the virus.
“Government leaders are making decisions without the benefit of relevant and obtainable data. Unfortunately, they don’t know how prevalent the virus is and has been in the population. Therefore, we do not have sufficient, reliable information to understand true hospitalization and fatality rates,” said Berger. “That necessary data is easily obtainable through random sample testing, which world-renowned scientists at Harvard and Stanford have been recommending for some time. We owe it to the hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed North Carolinians to check the math.”
Berger added: “If the true data supports the most stringent measures, then presenting that data to the public will increase compliance and confidence in government. We must immediately conduct random sample testing to know the answer.”
The World Economic Forum published an article endorsing the urgent need for random sample testing.
