Top medical association questions Health Ministry's shift in COVID-19 numbers: What changed overnight?
The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) slammed the Health Ministry's differentiation between COVID-19 "cases" and "patients." "Patients and cases are the same thing in the science of medicine. Don't play with our health and our minds!" the Oct. 1 statement from the TTB said.
Duvar English
The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) slammed Health Minister Fahrettin Koca's Sept. 30 announcement that Ankara has not been publishing the full number of COVID-19 cases and official numbers have included only symptomatic cases.
Koca said on Sept. 30 that COVID-19 “patients” are people with clinical symptoms, whereas “cases” include those who are asymptotic.
"Patients and cases are the same thing in the science of medicine. Don't play with our health and our minds!" the Oct. 1 statement from the TTB said.
Noting that the Health Ministry reported 963 "cases" on July 28 and 942 "patients" the next day, the TTB questioned the numbers' inconsistency.
"Since patients and cases are different things, what changed overnight to make all CASES become PATIENTS?"
The Health Ministry changed the wording of the data it shares daily in July. As of July 29, the data showed the daily number of new “patients,” while prior to that it showed the daily number of new “cases.”