Rebecca Watson, founder of Skepchick and former Skeptics Guide to the Universe co-cost, posted a video countering the claim that COVID-19 deaths are being over-estimated:
The complete lack of preparedness and testing here in the US impedes that to the point that if anything, COVID-19 may be underdiagnosed and it may have caused many more deaths than known. How many people were unable to get tested, unable to afford to go to the hospital, and died at home? How many people even died in the hospital before testing was widespread? My fellow Skepchick writer Jamie Bernstein pointed out that a nursing home had 26 deaths in a month, compared to their usual rate of 3-7 deaths. Only half of the deceased were tested for COVID-19, so those are the only ones that went into the statistics. What about the other 13? We just don’t know.
What about false negatives due to long delays between taking swabs and performing tests due to backlog?
The video doesn’t specifically address false negatives. Personally I think we are undercounting cases and it may be years before researchers will know the true extent of this Pandemic.
I have a friend who became ill with what matches Covid-19 symptoms. Her test came back negative, but the results weren’t back for 11 days. Quite a back-up apparently. Four days longer than they said.