Mecklenburg County's health director is defending the county's use of data models.
The designer of one model has said the county was using it incorrectly.
The projections and models have not been accurate and are only as good as the data available.
The county is starting to distance themselves from the University of Pennsylvania's model a bit.
The county’s models were created by putting local data into the Penn model, but its accuracy has been called into question after the creator of model said he isn’t sure if the county is using it correctly. It’s not designed to be used when cases plateau.
Harris is talking about models now.
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) May 14, 2020
"None of them are actually accurate."
The county is no longer going to release projections from their model to the public
Health Director Gibbie Harris said she's comfortable with using it behind the scenes, because Mecklenburg County hasn't hit its peak in cases.
She said the whole purpose of flattening the curve is to make sure when the county does hit its peak, the hospital systems are prepared. All indicators are showing that will be the case.
The county is not out of the woods, Harris said.
[North Carolina stay-at-home order eased with Phase 1 of reopening]
“Just because we have flattened out the curve, doesn't mean we are not going to see the same number of cases,” she said. “Eventually, they are just pushed out and they will not happen as rapidly if we had not done the stay-at-home order.”
South Carolina is reopening at a faster rate than Mecklenburg County and Harris said she has not seen an impact from it.
She also said the county is ready, at this point, to enter phase two next week.
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