COVID-19 day 112 : 📈 1,347,916 cases; 80,684 deaths : 11 May 2020
We lead the world in known cases, not testing.
It’s day 112 since the first case of coronavirus disease was announced in the United States. We do not lead the world in testing. We lead the world in known cases. And every news organization that ran a photo of President Trump beside this propaganda amplified misinformation*.
The US is the third most populous country in the world. We should near (not at) the top of a global list documenting the number of people tested (which is not the same thing as number of tests completed).
Raw data lack context and are therefore meaningless (except to accountants).
We aren't even close where it matters, tests on a per capita basis. For example, from Our World in Data:
Data from the NY Times
It’s the context, stupid!
And he continues to lie about the availability of tests.
[*] Fair use of copyrighted material for commentary
🦠Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 1,347,916 (1,329,799) cases and 80,684 (79,528) deaths in the US, an increase of 1.36% and 1.45%, respectively, since Sunday. A week ago, the daily numbers increased by 1.95% and 1.85%, respectively.
The seven-day average: 18,117 (20,258) cases and 1,679 (1,692) deaths
Percent of cases leading to death: 5.99% (5.98%).
Today’s case rate is 407.22 per 100,000; the death rate, 24.38 per 100,000.
One week ago, the case rate was 356.68 per 100,000; the death rate, 20.83 per 100,000.
Note: numbers in (.) are from the prior day and are provided for context. I include the seven-day average because dailies vary so much in the course of a week, particularly over a weekend.
🤓 Recommended reading
Surviving Covid-19 May Not Feel Like Recovery for Some
Debilitating symptoms can last long after a person’s body has gotten rid of the coronavirus, a reality Italians are now confronting.
NY Times, 10 May 2020
🔬 Research and medical news
More than half of all Covid-related deaths in 14 states have happened in elder care facilities. It’s not just that this group is more vulnerable because of age. It is that they vulnerable because of budgets, confined quarters and insufficient preparation.
🎦 Recommended viewing
✅ Tuesday, Anthony Fauci will warn of the “danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” in testimony before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. The hearing is at 10:00 am Eastern.
✅ NHK is Japan's national broadcasting organization. Via Erin Bromage, comparative immunologist and professor of biology (specializing in immunology) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
😎 Brighten your day
And perhaps that of a dancer. This arts fundraiser for ballet companies features 32 ballet dancers from 14 countries who have filmed themselves performing Mikhail Fokine's Le Cygne (The Dying Swan). It includes a dancer from our company, Pacific Northwest Ballet. Enjoy!
Sections (no jump links, sorry!)
1, Around the country; 2, Around the world; 3, Politics, economics and COVID-19;
4, Case count; 5, What you can do and resources
⓵ Around the country
Explore data about your state using the Stanford COVID-19 dashboard.
Here is Washington state (the UI for all these dashboards could use a bit of work). You can see which counties show growth in cases (such as Yakima and Douglas) and which have peaked (such as Adams and Jefferson).
The data by county are, like the other data, aggregate (not per capita). Which is stunning when you consider the difference between the population of King County (2.25 million) and Yakima County (250,873).
King County has 277 cases/100,000
Pierce County has 172 cases/100,000
Snohomish County, where I live, has 326 cases/100,000
Yakima has 710 cases/100,000
What’s different about Yakima County?
It’s in eastern Washington, and that means agriculture. About 63% of Yakima County employees are in essential industries like agriculture, health care and wholesale trade. Agriculture accounts for more than 1-in-4 employees. Its hops, asparagus and vegetables mature earlier in the season than, say, apples and peaches, which are grown further north.
“The agriculture industry can’t afford to have outbreaks… The supply chain is one of the most frustrating things. I can’t find disinfecting wipes to save my soul. We need them, but we can’t get them.” ~ Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League
Check it out.
⓶ Around the world
From The Economist:
⓷ Politics, economics and COVID-19
A tale of two rebellions.
🏥 In Selah, WA, a small city in Yakima County (population less than 10,000), the mayor is defying the governor’s stay-at-home order. She owns “a drive-in restaurant that was serving food Saturday to customers sitting outside at nearby picnic tables.” Her son owns a pizza outlet.
Her argument, that the stay-at-home order “should not apply in rural communities” because they have fewer cases than more densely population areas like Seattle, is willfully ill informed. Yakima County has led the state in per capita cases for weeks.
🏥 In Castle Rock, CO, (population about 50,000) another woman restaurant owner defied a Democratic governor’s stay-at-home order on Sunday.
Every seat was taken as folks dined in. The floor was packed with people standing, waiting for coffee or take-out orders. One person could be seen wearing a mask inside the building.
“I expected it to be busy. I never expected this," owner April Arellano said. "I'm so happy so many people came out to support the Constitution and stand up for what is right. We did our time. We did our two weeks. We did more than two weeks…and we were failing. We had to do something.”
“Support the Constitution.” Rubbish.
Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 US Supreme Court decision, “empowers states to temporarily curtail constitutional rights in the face of a society-threatening epidemic, as long as the measures have a substantial connection to the public-health emergency and aren’t arbitrary.”
“[I]it is the role of the executive and legislative branches to determine what steps are necessary when faced with a public health crisis.” Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray
Bigger splash; much bigger penalty.
Gov. Jared Polis, calling the restaurant an “immediate health hazard,” has suspended the restaurant license of C&C Breakfast & Korean Kitchen in Castle Rock, a day after a video showing a packed dining room in defiance of public health rules.
Please take a moment and answer this short reader survey! ✅
⓸ Case count
There is a lag between being contagious and showing symptoms, between having a test and getting its results. The virus was not created in a lab and the weight of evidence is it was not released intentionally. Although early reports tied the outbreak to a seafood (“wet”) market in Wuhan, China, analyses of genomic data in January suggested that the virus might have developed elsewhere.
🌎 11 May
Globally: 4 006 257 cases (88 891 - new) with 278 892 deaths (4531 - new)
The Americas: 1 702 451 cases (47 073 - new) with 101 874 deaths (3151 - new)
Johns Hopkins interactive dashboard (11.00 pm Pacific)
Global confirmed: 4,177,687 (4,103,152 - yesterday)
Total deaths: 286,336 (282,727 - yesterday)
Recovered: 1,456,318 (1,411,708 - yesterday)
🇺🇸 11 May
CDC: 1,324,488 (1,300,696) cases and 79,756 (78,771) deaths
Johns Hopkins*: 1,347,916 (1,329,799) cases and 80,684 (79,528) deaths
State data*: 1,340,412 (1,322,807) identified cases and 75,107 (74,270) deaths
Total tested (US, Johns Hopkins): 9,382,235 (8,987,524)
View infographic and data online: total cases and cases and deaths/100,000.
* Johns Hopkins data, ~11.00 pm Pacific.
State data include DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
⓹ What you can do
Stay home as much as possible, period.
Digestive problems may be a symptom.
Resources
👓 See COVID-19 resource collection at WiredPen.
📝 Subscribe to Kathy’s Daily Memo :: Daily Memo archives
🦠 COVID-19 @ WiredPen.com
🌐 Global news