Thread by @EricTopol

The critical 45 days: how one country got ahead of its outbreak and the other enabled unbridled #COVID19 spread
Looking at the numbers in more depth from @OurWorldInData @JoeHasell @MaxCRoser @KoreaCDC data
right panel= total cases from yesterday, note different X and Y axes

Which also explains why South Korea positive tests were <3% throughout.
As of end March 30 @COVID19Tracking for the US:
163,656 positive #COVID19 tests in 964,865 people
**a 16.9% positive rate**

At end March 31, now with 1,048,971 #COVID19 tests
the positive rate (184,770 people)
has gone up further to
**17.6%**
With more testing, the higher positive rate, along w/ the extremely high absolute rate, all reflect the breadth of spread (+ how far behind we've been on this)

At today's presser, @POTUS says " New York got off to a late start."
Truth: It's the US that got off to a very, very late start.

And lots of double talk for what went wrong.
No mention of NOT having tests , not following @WHO best practices from the start (all done in SK; none in US)
1. Massive testing
2. Tracing every contact and testing each person
3. Quarantine of all known cases
4. Physical distancing

For those asking for testing, adjusted by population size (per capita), here is @OurWorldofData as of March 20, after testing ramped up. It was much worse if you go back to March (my window of the 45 critical days)

We learned for the treatment of heart attacks every minute counts. "Time is muscle."
Then there's country attacks.
45 days to respond to a pandemic that had already been brewing for 2 months is unfathomable.

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1244797132206264320

As of April 1st, the #COVID19 positive test rate in the US has gone up yet again
210,770 + tests in 1,149,960 people
**18.3%**

In comparison for South Korea, which got out in front of its outbreak, the overall rate of + tests was < 3%, peak of 5.6% in early March (via @jq1234t)