# Issues with Santa Clara study **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [April 24, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/issues-with-santa-clara-study/852513 "2020-04-24T18:11:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/issues-with-santa-clara-study/852513/1 "2020-04-24T18:11:04Z")
Forgive me if this is mentioned elsewhere, but a recent study of COVID19 in Santa Clara county estimated that a lot more folks are infected, and thus the death rate is significantly lower. Although there were som sample issues (volunteers from facebbok), the main issue is the antibody test could have a much higher false positive rate: > [@](#): > > The specificity estimate suggests that just 0.5 percent of tests will be false positives, but the range leaves open the possibility that up to 1.7 percent of tests are false positives. This is a big sticking point for critics. > > In the Santa Clara study, the researchers only found 50 samples out of 3,330 were positive. That’s a 1.5-percent positive rate. Given that the false positive rate may be up to 1.7 percent, it’s possible (if unlikely) that every positive test detected was a false positive. > **[Experts demolish studies suggesting COVID-19 is no worse than flu](https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/experts-demolish-studies-suggesting-covid-19-is-no-worse-than-flu/)** > > Authors of widely publicized antibody studies “owe us all an apology,” one expert says. Brian