Not the last time I'm gonna have to say this:
The very sharp increases in COVID-19 positives in the United States are inevitable given that testing is substantially increasing. And we want testing to increase. We are finally catching cases that we needed to catch 10 days ago.
The very sharp increases in COVID-19 positives in the United States are inevitable given that testing is substantially increasing. And we want testing to increase. We are finally catching cases that we needed to catch 10 days ago.
Today, for example, @COVID19Tracking recorded 20,045 new tests, of which 1985 (9.9%) were positive. One week ago, by contrast (Wednesday 3/11) there were only 2446 tests, of which 275 (11.2%) were positive.
The @COVID19Tracking data is not comprehensive and there are ups-and-downs from day to day and other quirks (some states don't report negatives). But you won't serve yourself well by freaking out whenever the numbers go up because they're gonna go way way up as we get more tests.
This ALSO means that comparing the US's growth curve to other countries *isn't that helpful* even if makes for interesting-looking charts and graphs. Because our testing sucked, our curve is likely to be steeper than counties that had more adequate testing to begin with.
