Good for Serbia for implementing some centralized system. A PCR test result in the U.S has absolutely no way of being verified, either negative or positive
In Israel, which swabs every person who lands at the airport. There is a suspiciously steady stream of people flying in from the U.S who were negative before take off and positive 10 minutes after landing
For Omicron, with an incubation period of three days, one should expect negatives to turn positive with a transatlantic flight.
Google suggests that it takes 10-12 hr to fly from NYC to Israel. That's a long time with a fast virus. (Even with a week's incubation period, you'd still expect to see it, just less.). Furthermore, many of those negative tests will have been 24-48 hr prior to takeoff, depending upon legal requirements that day.
It's okay to suspect malice, but it may not be necessary here :).
Doesn't the thread suggest someone has fiddled the system on Djokovic's behalf? If that's the case then the centralized PCR verification system is nothing but a house of cards.
No centralised government conspiracy needs to be invoked here.
The corresponding QR codes in the documents still point to a negative and a positive test result in the Serbian database. The charge is that the Date of Sampling/Sample ID/Date of Results was swapped in what appears a Word document [1]
The timestamp is likely when the entry was opened in the system.
Not when the test was made.
Normally that's the same.
But it's not enforced, as for example a test center which lost it's internet connection temporary is still allowed to add tests once the connection is back up.
So we don't know for sure that the test is manipulated.
We only know for sure that it was placed later in the system, not that it was made later.
I think this is a pretty big stretch. What does it mean for the "entry to be open in the system"? You think it is more likely the test center lost its internet connection for multiple days than that Djokovic lied?
> You think it is more likely the test center lost its internet connection for multiple days than that Djokovic lied?
No never wrote anything like that.
I just wrote that the date in the system is from when the information was put in the system, and that there are reasons why it is allowed to put information into a system about an older test.
I didn't say that I think it's likely that it had been the case in this case.
The internet connection is just an random example(1). Someone more involved with the process could probably list many other reasons such a thing can happen.
It just means that it's just an hint that something unusual happened but not at all a prove that the test was made later.
It even less means that anyone from the operators of the system recording the tests was involved, it's enough for a single laboratory which can evaluate tests to enter a fake result, there are probably tens or even hundreds of such laboratories in most EU countries.
There are even chances that the manipulation was quite different then what it seems to be, like the positive test has been made at that point in time, but it was intentionally hold back from being put into the system, because the person wanted to be able to lie about not having had covid. Now hat is clearly a unlikely thing. But possible.
Anyway the point is that "datum of recording" != "datum of test" is on itself not _that_ unusual in general. But if it happens in this specific context with another test being made shortly after before the first tests result was put into the system etc. it is _very_ suspicious.
Depends on where you got tested in the US. States like NY, NJ, CA and others have mandatory reporting requirements, so test results get returned to the county or state DOH and are verifiable.
The problem is at the state level, you have a lot of weird political stuff that influences what and how each state performs certain processes.
There’s also a huge flow of travel from US to Israel, and lots of weird corner cases and loopholes. (Just like Canada and Mexico)
But Serbia's system seems flawed, the EU system has all the data encoded in the QR-code, including name, the date the test was performed, the sort of test (PCR or antigen), and the result, plus a digital signature to prevent changing of those fields. And the QR code is given to the person and is static. The app that checks it checks that the document hasn't been modified by verifying the digital signature. What Serbia seems to have done is to have a PDF with the timestamp, and QR code which goes to a website showing a database entry with no timestamp (except for the URL which apparently does contain a Unix timestamp, but that's not authoritive nor easily parsable by huamns).
So if I got a negative test in July and a positive one yesterday, and I want to fly somewhere, it seems I can just copy the QR code from the test in July and paste it into a Word document that says "The test was performed on January 10, 2022, and the result is available through this link: [QR code with the link to the results from July 2021]". And it seems this document doctoring (with a document with a result that allows unvaxed entry) is what Team Djokovic has done.
Worth pointing out that this is Serbia's internal system, but you can also request EU QR from the same website.
Serbia's one of 33 non-EU countries whose centralised system is up to EU standard, and as such you can get both the Serbian QR code and the EU QR code.
As such, assuming no shenanigans (even though things point otherwise), he should have no problem converting it to the EU QR code and presenting that.
> But Serbia's system seems flawed, the EU system has all the data encoded in the QR-code, including name, the date the test was performed, the sort of test (PCR or antigen), and the result, plus a digital signature to prevent changing of those fields
(I'm in the EU): I can get a free "gargle" PCR test - either via walk-up test centre or via collect/test-at-home/drop-sample-in-collection box any time I want here, and in both cases there is zero verification that the sample I provide for the test actually came from my mouth.
If you have a friend who is Covid19 positive, it would be trivial to get yourself a positive result.
The Netherlands has a separate local and international version as well with less information in the local version because they didn’t want everyone and his dog implementing different rules.
But for the international version you can’t just decide to give less information because then it won’t accepted.
I do not think that is entirely true - all my PCR tests have contained the name of the lab where the test was performed as well as the performing (or, in some cases), supervising physician.
That does not mean it is easy to verify test results, but it should be possible.
In Israel, which swabs every person who lands at the airport. There is a suspiciously steady stream of people flying in from the U.S who were negative before take off and positive 10 minutes after landing