Question

In a controversial interview in April 2020, two Californian physicians used data they collected from their urgent care organization to argue in favor of reopening businesses, which were closed due to coronavirus. The urgent care organization runs several coronavirus testing sites around Kern County, California. The sites tested 5213 people by the time of this interview, which accounted for over half of the testing done in Kern County. Of those 5213 people, 340 tested positive for the coronavirus. Based on these numbers, the physicians state that 6.5% of the population [presumably of Kern] is positive for coronavirus.

What is the target population for this study?

What is the study population for this study? (Think carefully.)

What parameter are the physicians interested in?

What statistic did the physicians use to estimate the parameter? Is the statistic likely a good estimate of the parameter of interest? Why or why not?

What was the sample selection method for this study, and how might it affect the usefulness of the results?

Answer 1

a) Target population: People living in California

b) Study Population: people living in Kern County,California

c) Parameter of interest: Proportion of individuals tested positive for coronavirus

d) The physicians use a one-proportion z-test statistic. Yes, it is a good estimate of the parameter of interest since the sample size is large enough.

e) The sample selection method for this study is a random sampling technique. The random sampling method helps in eliminating the sampling bias thus avoid the errors in the final results.