At a time when the Trump administration is facing intense criticism for its failure to make coronavirus tests available to millions of nervous Americans, remarks by a federal health official on Tuesday appeared to suggest that the World Health Organization’s diagnostic tests were wildly inaccurate. In a somewhat rambling answer to a question related to W.H.O. tests, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said: “It doesn’t help to put out a test where 50 percent or 47 percent were false positives. Late on Tuesday night, Dr. Birx confirmed that although she was responding to a question about the W.H.O. test, she was referring to a study of an early diagnostic test used in China.

Source: New York Times March 18, 2020 00:15 UTC