It's my understanding that it was traced definitively to Taylor Farms, but the only positive test may have been a false positive.

You don't always get a positive test, but this doesn't necessarily prevent you from concluding the cause of food contamination.

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pudgywalsh 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> but the only positive test may have been a false positive

Software getting flagged by anti-malware as a false positive is a great way to get an evil corpo tale of woe to the top of HN with 800 points.

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stogot 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> It's my understanding that it was traced definitively to Taylor Farms, but the only positive test may have been a false positive.

So it’s a false positive?

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Terr_ 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> So it’s a false positive?

They already told you clearly, so it sounds like you're trying to browbeat them with a fallacy of equivocation over the scope of "it".

These things are not equivalent:

1. A biological test for a parasite in a sample of equipment/material from the factory. (Claimed as false-positive.)

2. The analysis of the supply-chain for the food that sickened people which led to that facility as a common factor. (Presumably still accurate.)

___________

To use a criminal-investigation metaphor: Suppose a dead woman is found covered in knife wounds, and the circumstantial evidence leads to one Knifey McStabberson, since he (A) previously dated the woman and (B) sent a death-threat once via text-message, and (C) has a collection of hundreds of suitably-sized knives. Investigators notice one that looks bloody, and test it... It's her blood! Wait, oops, no, false-positive, it was something else.

What is your takeaway from the story so far? Is it that Knifey McStabberson himself is "a false-positive" and obviously totally innocent... or is it that it would be a good idea to check more of the knives scattered around his house and in his car?

	▲	roughly an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Christ, man, hasn’t the McStabberson family been through enough? Do you not have the decency to finally bring this witch hunt to an end?!