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*** OFFICIAL *** COVID-19 CoronaVirus Thread. Fresh epidemic fears as child pneumonia cases surge in Europe after China outbreak. NOW in USA (5 Viewers)

Based just on percentages and common sense, there is no reason that there should be a massive wave of infections as only a small percentage of the population is rioting. There should be a statistical increase in cases starting within the next few days. But the numbers of participants isn’t going to lead to eye-popping numbers.
What? Isn't that what everybody's said about exponential growth? Those small percentage spread it to two people and so on and so forth? It's amazing how the narrative has changed all of a sudden. 

 
What? Isn't that what everybody's said about exponential growth? Those small percentage spread it to two people and so on and so forth? It's amazing how the narrative has changed all of a sudden. 
His statement was hundreds of thousands dead because of the riots. That is unlikely due to other contact points social distancing. Which is the point of social distancing, to blunt the spread. 

 
Based just on percentages and common sense, there is no reason that there should be a massive wave of infections as only a small percentage of the population is rioting. There should be a statistical increase in cases starting within the next few days. But the numbers of participants isn’t going to lead to eye-popping numbers.
Where did Stat’s post go?

 
Sorry I didn't mean to call anyone out but I see the same hypocrisy in the shooting by cop thread with people saying this is important yet poo-pooing the fact that our economy was not important enough to loosen restrictions. 

 
Where did Stat’s post go?
Yeah, weird. I was just about to post this statement from the article he posted that he said proved wearing masks was kabuki theater:

”The evidence from these laboratory filtration studies suggests that such fabric masks may reduce the transmission of larger respiratory droplets.”

 
Yeah, weird. I was just about to post this statement from the article he posted that he said proved wearing masks was kabuki theater:

”The evidence from these laboratory filtration studies suggests that such fabric masks may reduce the transmission of larger respiratory droplets.”
The act is getting tired.

 
Oddly, no daily report from Peru in Covid worldometers.  Even without their number, new cases topped 110,000, and deaths were over 4,500.  Brazil (27K) jumps back atop the U.S. (22K) in new cases.  Nearly a 40% jump in Nicaragua.

 
I honestly don't think the majority of the people in the country give a crap about coronavirus anymore.  Daily cases/spikes in cases do not mean anything as long as deaths and hospitalizations keep declining...it is better that the virus cycles through as many healthy people as possible.   Regardless, it will fade from the news faster now and people are going to continue on back to normal.

 
Went for a quick beer with wifey yesterday.  Still can't go inside to eat or drink here in CT, but was sunny day.  Stopped by uncle's house.  He lives alone and is 73, but in very good shape for his age (probably better than me, and I am 20 yrs younger).  We pull into driveway, get out of car with masks on and head towards his door.  He comes out and tells us to take these stupid things off our faces.  I was simply expecting to chat for a few minutes outside with masks and social distancing.  Figured I was doing a good deed by visiting an old relative who likely hasn't seen too many people recently.  Instead, he forces us into his house, demands we drink beer, and we end up 3 feet apart, no masks, hooting and hollering.  I say, must be nice to have company, huh?  His reply - the UPS guy just stopped by and I invited him in for a soda.

 
And AWAAAAAAY WE GO!!!!!

Up to 10 states, with many right on the fringe...mine included.
What are they doing with their computations??

MD had been holding steady around 0.95 for a week or more.  Now it is 0.86, and when I click "Last Week" and "Two weeks ago" it is 0.86 and 0.87, respectively.  I'm sorry, but with that kind of action, I need some sort of explanation before I get bent out of shape over a jump - my first guess is going to be that they tweaked a parameter again.

 
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What are they doing with their computations??

MD had been holding steady around 0.95 for a week or more.  Now it is 0.86, and when I click "Last Week" it is 0.86 also.  I'm sorry, but with that kind of action, I need some sort of explanation before I get bent out of shape over a jump - my first guess is going to be that they tweaked a parameter again.
They altered their testing volume inputs to more accurately account for the increase in testing on 5/20.  So some places will have a pretty decent drop if they're really ramping up testing.  Others will have an increase if testing hasn't been so good.  They also put in an overlay for when each started their "open back up" events.  Check out Georgia

 
They altered their testing volume inputs to more accurately account for the increase in testing on 5/20.  So some places will have a pretty decent drop if they're really ramping up testing.  Others will have an increase if testing hasn't been so good.  They also put in an overlay for when each started their "open back up" events.  Check out Georgia
Gotcha - and I saw a note to that effect on the website - but what I'm saying is that TWO days ago MD was where it had been (circa 0.95) for quite some time - a week or two as I recall - and I was shocked to see it yesterday at 0.86.  That's a drop of basically 0.1 in one day.  Something is goofy with that big of a jump...

Or I've had a stroke and am completely misremembering numbers that I thought I have been paying reasonably close attention to for some time.

 
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They altered their testing volume inputs to more accurately account for the increase in testing on 5/20.  So some places will have a pretty decent drop if they're really ramping up testing.  Others will have an increase if testing hasn't been so good.  They also put in an overlay for when each started their "open back up" events.  Check out Georgia
I don't quite get their numbers on TN.  TN is definitely on the upswing.  After being around 350 cases/day for the last 3 weeks, 5 straight days over 400 and yesterday was +821.  The last two days were some very high testing numbers though, so as you mention, that may account for why TN's numbers haven't risen much.

 
Gotcha - and I saw a note to that effect on the website - but what I'm saying is that TWO days ago MD was where it had been (circa 0.95) and I was shocked to see it at 0.86 for the first time yesterday.  Something is goofy with that big of a jump.
I think every day that it runs, it goes back and re-runs the curve for the entire month?  

As an example, there was a point where TN jumped to the highest R value in the country.  But if you look at the TN numbers now, you can't see that point, because the newer data wiped it out.  The process constantly reevaluates the entire curve. 

 
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Gotcha - and I saw a note to that effect on the website - but what I'm saying is that TWO days ago MD was where it had been (circa 0.95) and I was shocked to see it at 0.86 for the first time yesterday.  Something is goofy with that big of a jump.
I think every day that it runs, it goes back and re-runs the curve for the entire month?  Not sure on that.  

As an example, there was a point where TN jumped to the highest R value in the country.  But if you look at the TN numbers now, you can't see that point, because the newer data wiped it out.  The process constantly reevaluates the entire curve. 
Been wondering if this is true.  I can't find that on their site though, but it would make sense and explain how things have changed.

 
I don't quite get their numbers on TN.  TN is definitely on the upswing.  After being around 350 cases/day for the last 3 weeks, 5 straight days over 400 and yesterday was +821.  The last two days were some very high testing numbers though, so as you mention, that may account for why TN's numbers haven't risen much.
Here in Florida...testing has been a huge focus and continues to increase.  That said, we are creeping to the magic "1" number even though testing has been the primary focus.  To suggest we are within the fed gov't "guidelines" is fantasy land, but we are continuing to move forward  :doh:

 
Been wondering if this is true.  I can't find that on their site though, but it would make sense and explain how things have changed.
I read it a while ago and I think that was the takeaway I got from it.  Making up numbers here but if you have 1,000 cases today, and they estimate the Rt today is 1.1, then 2 weeks from now you'd expect to have 1,100 cases.  Two weeks from now if you actually only have 1,050 cases, then they'll go back and correct today's Rt to 1.05.  I'm sure that's not exactly how the calculations work, just giving a rough illustration of how it might make sense to continually revise the numbers. 

 
The Louisiana numbers have jumped around quite a bit since the change on 5/20.  I have lost some confidence in the site since the change.  I don't really know what to think anymore.
Yeah, it was a site I was relying on but seems all over the place now. I'll continue to monitor it but won't be surprised by any numbers jumping around anymore.

 
Between faulty reporting, data mishaps (which we, LA, have had several... for real examples, "system was down so no new cases today, they'll be reported tomorrow" and "3 new labs with 2-month old results came online today and are included in today's numbers"), I still contend the daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  Active cases (which means recoveries have to be accounted for) and percentage of positive tests are, to me, the things to watch for, outside of deaths and hospitalizations (and specifically, hospitalizations as a percentage of hospital capacity).

 
Between faulty reporting, data mishaps (which we, LA, have had several... for real examples, "system was down so no new cases today, they'll be reported tomorrow" and "3 new labs with 2-month old results came online today and are included in today's numbers"), I still contend the daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  Active cases (which means recoveries have to be accounted for) and percentage of positive tests are, to me, the things to watch for, outside of deaths and hospitalizations (and specifically, hospitalizations as a percentage of hospital capacity).
:goodposting:  I've made my thoughts known on just using new case numbers. Hopefully there isn't a spike in hospitalizations over the next month or so. 

 
Between faulty reporting, data mishaps (which we, LA, have had several... for real examples, "system was down so no new cases today, they'll be reported tomorrow" and "3 new labs with 2-month old results came online today and are included in today's numbers"), I still contend the daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  Active cases (which means recoveries have to be accounted for) and percentage of positive tests are, to me, the things to watch for, outside of deaths and hospitalizations (and specifically, hospitalizations as a percentage of hospital capacity).
Me and a friend have a lot of lively discussions about "active cases" vs daily case counts.  All he cares about is active cases, and I spend most of my time watching daily cases.

I don't understand your point that faulty reporting and data mishaps show that daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  If this bad reporting affects one category, it will affect both, as active cases encapsulates the daily reporting.  Of course we never put too much faith in one daily number.  For instance, if TN reports 2,000 cases today, that would be an outlier.  It's why I like to average new cases out over a period of time.

The reason many focus on new cases, it's because it's a leading indicator.  Active cases is an important stat, but it's not really telling you anything about what's happening going forward.  We know that 99% of people that get covid will eventually shed the virus, so if there are 500 new cases today, at some point in time 495 people will recover.  

For me, active cases is very important when trying to forecast future cases, as the virus is only going to spread from active people.

But new cases is that first line of data that is telling us that the virus may be starting to spread again..  

 
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Between faulty reporting, data mishaps (which we, LA, have had several... for real examples, "system was down so no new cases today, they'll be reported tomorrow" and "3 new labs with 2-month old results came online today and are included in today's numbers"), I still contend the daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  Active cases (which means recoveries have to be accounted for) and percentage of positive tests are, to me, the things to watch for, outside of deaths and hospitalizations (and specifically, hospitalizations as a percentage of hospital capacity).
A lot of this R-number tracking reminds me of weighing yourself while on a long-term weight-loss diet.

If you weigh your self every hour, you'd see all kinds of fluctuations and think you weren't getting anywhere. If you weigh yourself once a week, the pattern of weight loss would instead be readily apparent.

 
A lot of this R-number tracking reminds me of weighing yourself while on a long-term weight-loss diet.

If you weigh your self every hour, you'd see all kinds of fluctuations and think you weren't getting anywhere. If you weigh yourself once a week, the pattern of weight loss would instead be readily apparent.
I think that's definitely true of anyone looking at any of the numbers daily.  Great analogy.

I've noticed as my attention has shifted to the protests over the last week, that it doesn't take away from my ability to figure out what's going on with covid.   Every few days I can peak at the numbers and see what's happening, and I'm good. 

 
Me and a friend have a lot of lively discussions about "active cases" vs daily case counts.  All he cares about is active cases, and I spend most of my time watching daily cases.

I don't understand your point that faulty reporting and data mishaps show that daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  If this bad reporting affects one category, it will affect both, as active cases encapsulates the daily reporting.  Of course we never put too much faith in one daily number.  For instance, if TN reports 2,000 cases today, that would be an outlier.  It's why I like to average new cases out over a period of time.

The reason many focus on new cases, it's because it's a leading indicator.  Active cases is an important stat, but it's not really telling you anything about what's happening going forward.  We know that 99% of people that get covid will eventually shed the virus, so if there are 500 new cases today, at some point in time 495 people will recover.  

For me, active cases is very important when trying to forecast future cases, as the virus is only going to spread from active people.

But new cases is that first line of data that is telling us that the virus may be starting to spread again..  
Fair enough. I should've added that I think that number of tests is equally important when talking new case numbers. I guess it's kind of implied when talking about the percentage of positives (which I mentioned), but seeing the number as well might be helpful. 

Regarding the bolded, I'm saying we have experienced several times now where there were reporting discrepancies where big jumps in new cases were not as they seemed, as a large (majority, even) of the day's "new cases" were, in fact, old results just now being reported. @Doug B's point above would help speak to that. Maybe a new case weekly average, or a new-cases-7-day trend would help tamp down the outliers. 

 
Between faulty reporting, data mishaps (which we, LA, have had several... for real examples, "system was down so no new cases today, they'll be reported tomorrow" and "3 new labs with 2-month old results came online today and are included in today's numbers"), I still contend the daily case counts are not a reliable indicator.  Active cases (which means recoveries have to be accounted for) and percentage of positive tests are, to me, the things to watch for, outside of deaths and hospitalizations (and specifically, hospitalizations as a percentage of hospital capacity).
This is what worldometer is doing essentially, correct?  The rt.live is focused on spread etc.  Both have their place in my view.  Just need to remember (and be clear about) what each is attempting to do.

 
A lot of this R-number tracking reminds me of weighing yourself while on a long-term weight-loss diet.

If you weigh your self every hour, you'd see all kinds of fluctuations and think you weren't getting anywhere. If you weigh yourself once a week, the pattern of weight loss would instead be readily apparent.
well said

 
No one is saying that a combination of masks and social distancing doesn't cut the risk a small degree (and nowhere near enough to justify destroying the economy over).  But Non-medical masks are simply Kabuki Theater at this point.
...
Circling back to Stat's link from his wiped post.

He gives that link to establish that non-medical face coverings do pretty much nothing at all, in either direction. But from within that linked paper, leading off the "EFFECTIVENESS OF HOMEMADE FABRIC MASKS IN PROTECTING OTHERS" section:

Several experimental studies have examined the effects of fabric masks on the transmission of droplets of various sizes.

Anfinrud et al. shared via email that they used sensitive laser light-scattering procedures to detect droplet emission while people were speaking. The authors found that “a damp homemade cloth facemask” reduced droplet emission to background levels (when users said “Stay Healthy” three times). However, when a fabric is dampened, the yarns can swell over time, potentially altering its filtering performance. That swelling will depend on the fabric: cotton swells readily, synthetics less so. In an unpublished follow-up experiment, Anfinrud et al. repeated their study with a variety of dry (not moistened) cloths, including a standard workers dust mask (not certified N95) and a mask rigged from an airline eye covering. They found that all of these masks reduced droplet emission generated by speech to background level.
Maybe the next paragraph makes the "no masks!" point a little better? This part is about symptomatic patients and how well commercially-available face-coverings hindered actual cough particles:

Bae et al. (2020) evaluated the effectiveness of surgical and cotton masks in filtering SARSCoV-2.10 They found that neither kind of mask reduced the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 from the coughs of four symptomatic patients with COVID-19 to the environment and external mask surface. The study used disposable surgical masks (180 mm × 90 mm, 3 layers [inner surface mixed with polypropylene and polyethylene, polypropylene filter, and polypropylene outer surface], pleated, bulk packaged in cardboard; KM Dental Mask, KM Healthcare Corp) and reusable 100% cotton masks (160 mm × 135 mm, 2 layers, individually packaged in plastic; Seoulsa). The median viral loads of nasopharyngeal and saliva samples from the four participants were 5.66 log copies/mL and 4.00 log copies/mL, respectively. The median viral loads after coughs without a mask, with a surgical mask, and with a cotton mask were similar: 2.56 log copies/mL, 2.42 log copies/mL, and 1.85 log copies/mL, respectively. All swabs from the outer mask surfaces of the masks were positive for SARS-CoV-2, whereas swabs from three out of the four symptomatic patients from the inner mask surfaces were negative. Note that this study focused on symptomatic patients who coughed.
But -- ain't there always a "but" with these things? -- the Bae et al "four-patient" study got publicly retracted yesterday by the author's themselves:

Notice of Retraction: Effectiveness of Surgical and Cotton Masks in Blocking SARS-CoV-2

Seongman Bae, MD, et al

According to recommendations by the editors of Annals of Internal Medicine, we are retracting our article, “Effectiveness of Surgical and Cotton Masks in Blocking SARS-CoV-2. A Controlled Comparison in 4 Patients,” which was published on Annals.org on 6 April 2020 (1).

We had not fully recognized the concept of limit of detection (LOD) of the in-house reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction used in the study (2.63 log copies/mL), and we regret our failure to express the values below LOD as “<LOD (value).” The LOD is a statistical measure of the lowest quantity of the analyte that can be distinguished from the absence of that analyte. Therefore, values below the LOD are unreliable and our findings are uninterpretable.
...

As much as I would like to get back to pre-COVID no-mask days ... the data informing recommendation of public face-covering usage for source control (protecting others) still has scientific consensus behind it, so far as I can ascertain.

 
Fair enough. I should've added that I think that number of tests is equally important when talking new case numbers. I guess it's kind of implied when talking about the percentage of positives (which I mentioned), but seeing the number as well might be helpful. 

Regarding the bolded, I'm saying we have experienced several times now where there were reporting discrepancies where big jumps in new cases were not as they seemed, as a large (majority, even) of the day's "new cases" were, in fact, old results just now being reported. @Doug B's point above would help speak to that. Maybe a new case weekly average, or a new-cases-7-day trend would help tamp down the outliers. 
I totally agree.  Great example is Florida.  I just refreshed world-o-meter and , sorry @The Commish, they just registered 1,317 new cases.  That's their 2nd highest daily rise of all-time.  It's not time to freak out yet.  But if tomorrow is 1,400 and then the next day is 1,500, then the narrative changes dramatically.  

 
I totally agree.  Great example is Florida.  I just refreshed world-o-meter and , sorry @The Commish, they just registered 1,317 new cases.  That's their 2nd highest daily rise of all-time.  It's not time to freak out yet.  But if tomorrow is 1,400 and then the next day is 1,500, then the narrative changes dramatically.  
Since April, we've had multiple days with 1000+ spikes.  I've already talked about what was happening in Belle Glade Florida....funny how that's not made the news in any meaningful way isn't it?  I don't freak out about it a whole lot because I know there is a focus on testing here that I haven't heard replicated in other areas, so when looking at Florida, I kind of stick to rt for a better gauge.  I expect the number to go up as testing increases.

 
I think every day that it runs, it goes back and re-runs the curve for the entire month?  

As an example, there was a point where TN jumped to the highest R value in the country.  But if you look at the TN numbers now, you can't see that point, because the newer data wiped it out.  The process constantly reevaluates the entire curve. 
i dunno man.  On Monday I noted that SC had 1.14.  a couple hours later, it was 1.01.  Mow they show SC at 1.22.  I don't know what to think.

 
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson - whose models closed down most of the world - admits hard lockdowns produced the same results as Sweden's soft lockdown (without destroying their economy)

The scientist behind the coronavirus lockdown in the UK has admitted that Sweden has achieved roughly the same suppression of the virus without draconian restrictions.

Professor Neil Ferguson, who became known as “professor lockdown” after convincing Boris Johnson to radically curtail everyday freedoms, acknowledged that the Swedish authorities had “got a long way to the same effect” without imposing a full lockdown despite relying on “quite similar science”.

Sweden has adopted a far softer approach to coronavirus than other countries in Europe, introducing voluntary social distancing measures and keeping restaurants, bars and many schools open.

Meanwhile, figures released earlier this month suggested Sweden had so far avoided a heavy blow to its economy by shunning a lockdown. Its GDP contracted by just 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year, compared to 3.8 per cent across the eurozone.

The UK economy contracted two per cent, the sharpest drop since the height of the financial crisis.

 
Anyone notice AL, ME, and UT are the only 3 states that have been in the red the entire 6 weeks?  Let's look at each for a second...

Alabama - 133 deaths per M (#24), 3828 cases per M (#21), 45867 tests per M (#34)
Maine - 70 deaths per M (#39), 1768 cases per M (#41), 43047 tests per M (#38)
Utah - 35 deaths per M (#46), 3182 cases per M (#28), 69181 tests per M (#11)

The states are quite different, from location to weather to the numbers above.  Yes, I understand the Rt factor isn't tied to the numbers above, but can anyone think of a reason why these 3 particular states share this common link?

 
A deeper dive into worldometer, and SD & MO stand out to me as well, for opposite reasons.  SD ranks 14th in cases per M, but 38th in deaths per M.  On the flip side, MO ranks 40th in cases per M, but 25th in deaths per M.  Is SD testing alot of healthy folks while MO is testing alot of sick folks?

 
NYC Expands Free COVID-19 Testing To All

This has been a trend in testing availability for at least a month now. 

NY's most recent update is 135 new hospitalizations, 2978 total hospitalizations, and 49 new fatalities. 278 people left the hospital. Every trend looking better.

So what happens? Major mass protesting with thousands gathered together with no social distancing. Probably taking trains and buses to do so.  :wall:

They are younger people, mostly outside, half or so wearing masks. But still, just when NY overcame a lot with slowing the spread. 

3 months of pain and we'll jeopardize it now? Not good.

 
TheWinz said:
A deeper dive into worldometer, and SD & MO stand out to me as well, for opposite reasons.  SD ranks 14th in cases per M, but 38th in deaths per M.  On the flip side, MO ranks 40th in cases per M, but 25th in deaths per M.  Is SD testing alot of healthy folks while MO is testing alot of sick folks?
I can't speak to SD or MO, but for us (LA), here are some numbers to kick around, from my own private data stash.  

As of today we have tested 402,087. We have 41,113 positives for a 10.23% rate.  And of those 41,113, only 9,405 (2% of all tests completed, 23% of total positive results) are currently active cases. 

 
Statorama said:
Seems like Sweden is starting to question (or at least the architect of their plan) the way they handled this.

LINK

“If we were to encounter the same illness with the same knowledge that we have today, I think our response would land somewhere in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done,” Anders Tegnell said in an interview with Swedish Radio.

 

 

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