AP finds states inconsistent in reporting virus test data

By Michelle Smith and Mike Stobbe

Michelle Smith, enterprise reporter, Providence, Rhode Island, and Mike Stobbe, New York-based health and science reporter, worked with AP statehouse colleagues around the country to find that several states – and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – have lumped together coronavirus tests that measure differing things or are reporting data in different ways, often giving a confusing or misleading picture for people trying to make decisions based on the testing data.