@Alex_Linder The second part is kinda true...
But it's actually worse. As far as I know, they have been releasing updates to professionals about how many cycles to use many times over the years in order to get the EXACT result they want. When the summer comes, and they need a calm season, they will release an order to decrease the cycles in order to get the corresponding data.
Covid data is rigged from the source, and people still are looking at these numbers to gain insight.