random sample

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Nearly 3 months ago I tweeted “Stat people: shouldn’t they be testing a largish random sample of people [w/o symptoms] to assess rates, alert those infected, rather than only high risk, symptomatic people, in the U.S.?” I was surprised that nearly all the stat and medical people I know expressed the view that it wouldn’t be feasible or even very informative. Really? Granted, testing was and is limited, but had it been made a priority, it could have been done. In the new issue of Significance (June 2020) that I just received, James J. Cochran writes “on the importance of testing a random sample.” [1]