7 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – August 4 2020”

    1. Thanks. It’s like a Monty Python skit. Yet, it’s real. I’ll give the President some credit. At least he’s familiar with the charts his advisors are giving him, however skewed the data are.

      Trump is correct that case fatality rate depends on testing. More tests a country does, the lower the case fatality rate, other things equal. In early July, the U.S. surpassed the E.U. average for testing per million inhabitants. But, it’s not as if the U.S. is an outlier on testing. It’s not. There are plenty of countries with higher rates of testing, including the U.K., Denmark, Russia, etc …

      On the death rate – or numbers of deaths per million people – the U.S. is doing progressively worse. We surpassed France last week, and may surpass Chile this week, with several other countries to be overtaken some time this month. I think that by the end of August the U.S. will be in the top 5.

      The absolute numbers, which the President likes to tout when it comes to testing but doesn’t when it comes to deaths, are quite awful, especially for a nation as resource-rich as we are.

  1. Reasonably good news on the Covid-19 front. I believe we peaked in the U.S. last week in terms of cases and deaths, that is, for the second wave. The data aren’t all in for today. But, Tuesday tends to be a day with backfill and high numbers. Other than Florida and Mississippi I’m not seeing death numbers as high as last week. New daily cases are decreasing in many states that are hot spots. Florida numbers will be off this week as a result of the hurricane. The Carolinas may also have fewer cases due to less testing.

    We will go over 1,000 deaths today, but it will probably not be 1,330 like last Tuesday, unless I’m way off in my prediction and extrapolation. So, like yesterday, the number of deaths will be less than the previous week’s number. I do expect a lengthy plateau, as we saw in the Northeast.

    And, I’m still quite concerned about the Midwest and middle of the country.

  2. Does anyone know what the differences are in the MA data shown on the worldometer site vs. the state dashboard which is listed at the Source on worldometer? For example, worldometer has 119,203 total cases and 546 new cases. The MA dashboard has 111,033 total cases and 438 new cases.

    1. Yes. Worldometer includes “probable cases,” which most states identify. For example, a nursing home resident who dies of respiratory failure but is never tested for the coronavirus, yet residents in her building had tested positive. This person is included as a probable case and death.

      Today’s numbers in MA aren’t what we needed to see, no matter how we slice them.

      I really like and strongly prefer Worldometer, as they update practically in real time, and provide accurate daily counts that start at 9pm and end after the last state reports (9pm). Other sites, like the Covid-19 tracker, stop their counts at 6pm (so they do a 6 – 6 count). Makes no sense, since many of the larger states like CA and TX haven’t reported yet. I understand that in the end you get the same tally, but from day to day there can be large differences. Also, Worldometer adds footnotes to state tallies that include over- and undercounts and ways these counts are reconciled.

      1. Thank you very much for the explanation Joshua. We are fortunate to have you contribute here!

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