CDC is conflating diagnostic and antibody tests for coronavirus

• A positive COVID-19 test means a person is currently carrying the coronavirus, while a positive antibody test suggests the individual has been infected in the past.

What they're saying: Harvard professor of global health Ashish Jha told The Atlantic, "Because antibody tests are meant to be used on the general population, not just symptomatic people, they will, in most cases, have a lower percent-positive rate than viral tests."

• Jha says the CDC's combination of the two tests makes their results "uninterpretable," and that the distortion will "drive down your positive rate in a very dramatic way."