Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Dom]

I was surprised to see in the New York Times today that new Covid-19 cases in the US fell to about 40,000/ day and yesterday and it's been trending downward the last 2 weeks. Still high but going in the right direction at least.

I'm not too keen on the horse race-style announcing of raw numbers that seems to be the thing in the US: "Texas just surpassed Florida in cases!!" "California has now done 10 million tests!!" "Cases in Tennessee spike 7% yesterday!!"

I'm sure pithy headlines like these get lots of clicks online but they're good for nothing as far as actionable knowledge. Give me some analyses that I can sink my teeth into and feel like I've actually learned something useful instead. That type of info is hard to find, though.

And I believe the jury is still out on whether there will be a fall/ winter "spike". The received wisdom seems to that we're guaranteed to have one but how do we know for sure? The virus has only been in existence for about 8-9 months. I think it's more likely the US will steadily have a high number of cases until it runs its course (or the powers that be do something useful with all those raw numbers in the headlines).

-Teresa

Hmmm, and when did it start that everyone had to route statistics through the White House before they were published?

Color me skeptical.