Call me surprised that the northeast has been able to keep numbers (relatively) low while other parts of the country are struggling with this.
I was looking at the numbers this morning and the worst places (FL, AZ) do seem to be improving a little.
I'm less surprised. But then I was watching what happened in Europe in Feb-Apr very closely. Each country handled the situation differently for assorted reasons. The same happened in the U.S. in Mar-May, more or less by region in addition to individual states. Every time I got curious why a given state or county looked bad, it didn't take long to figure out what type of outbreaks were happening or why the Positive Percent was staying relatively low.
Warning: Going into lecture mode. Xenforo makes it much easier.
Back in late Feb, an international company held a big meeting in Boston. Biogen failed to understand what was happening in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. As a result that meeting became a “super spreader” event in multiple states, including North Carolina where Biogen has a large office. Given that was my professional industry and where I live, I paid attention when I saw the first headline with "Biogen" and "Boston" in it. I knew by the time my daughter flew to Boston in early March that COVID-19 was spreading. After she came home on March 12, my family stayed very close to home for about six weeks.
April 12, NY Times
How a Premier U.S. Drug Company Became a Virus ‘Super Spreader’
Biogen employees unwittingly spread the coronavirus from Massachusetts to Indiana, Tennessee and North Carolina.
Biogen employees unwittingly spread the coronavirus from Massachusetts to Indiana, Tennessee and North Carolina.
www.nytimes.com
It was pretty easy to anticipate when a state/region was starting to get into trouble. The surprise for me has been CA and WA. But in those states, it's subregions that caused numbers to spike during the summer.
The general difference in July-August all over the U.S. and Europe is that a much larger number of people ages 20-50 tested positive. Lots of reasons, including more awareness and easier access to tests for people who aren't already really sick. But as demonstrated by the Maine wedding, still deadly to high risk people when more people get infected who aren't trying to protect others by wearing face masks or keeping their distance.
The quickest way I've found to get a sense of all the states is to check
rt.live. Things were starting to head in the right direction a month ago. But then a lot of colleges started the fall semester. What's below is just a sample of the state graphs. Can click and see more data for a given state, such as number of Positive Tests and Test Volume.
We'll see what happens by mid-Sept after the Labor Day holiday weekend. I was out at lunch time today and there was a lot of traffic heading out of town.
