This is a two-day post with the basic charts and graphs.
We have seen a continuing storm of bad and worse news in the United States. Here in Louisiana we were hotter earlier than most other places, right behind New York, New Jersey, and Michigan. That is now changing for the better.
Of course, we want to see the damage controlled everywhere, but it can start here, so far as we are concerned. For the last five days, we have continued to observe a lessening of the daily increase in the only metric with some finality. Deaths are no doubt undercounted, but perhaps less so proportionally than the number of positive tests done at wildly variable rates across states with restricted access to bottlenecked testing resources, or where authorities are just not engaged.
Our new deaths per day curve has blunted. The epidemic goes on, but it is losing momentum here, the upward steam has lost pressure. Here are the one week and two week curves as well.
Good news, but only if we keep to the hard public health control measures instituted from March 16- March 23. Slack Off, and the Virus will reignite in a blink with illness and death, and longer-term economic destruction. Thank you to the Governor, his wise Public Health advisors, the frontline workers who still make essential things run above idle, and Louisiana folks across the state who Follow the Rules to Protect all their neighbors, family , and friends.
The end isn’t here, but the Worst of the First Wave seems to be waning. That is something to give thanks for during this Passover Season and Christian Holy Week.
Stomp on that Virus Epidemic Curve.
One of the core reasons for this partial success in Louisiana is evident in the Worldometer US State by State testing Summary. Louisiana has the second highest rate among all 50 states. We are not flying blind and stupid here. Our testing per capita rate exceeds 1 per hundred of our state’s residents, and is almost triple that in the rest of the US.
Today’s NOLA Chart 03 shows that both statewide hospitalizations and ventilator use have crested for now. Elsewhere the DOH shows that in each of our nine health regions our base medical infrastructure resources are not in jeopardy. The Hospital Levees will hold. Absent some further complication, like fools wandering out to gather in groups with strangers while the Stay at Home Order is still in place. That includes religious services, where Real Christians care for their fellow man, and don’t commit the Sin of Arrogant Pride.
Further positive evidence is provided by the infographic wizards at the Financial Times tracking COVID-19 worldwide and in the US. This graph shows that Louisiana is further along in its epidemic progression (rightward march on the X-axis to epidemic burn out) than all but New York and Washington. We are nearly equal in pandemic maturity to California and New Jersey at 15 days since first 3 deaths in each state were recorded. Further, in terms of intensity of harm (upward Y-axis) Louisiana is behind New York, New Jersey, and Michigan in absolute numbers, and Florida is fixing to pass us (not in a good way for them).
Another visualization of the incredible damage we are all facing in the US is this Financial Times infographic of Trump’s River of Red Death swelling since March 16, so that the United States is responsible for 25% of all the deaths in the World from COVID-19 during the last 24 hours. And rising still. Hour by Hour. What a shameful result due to casual ignorant Administrative dismissal and dithering when it counted.
Louisiana DOH Basic Charts (April 8, 2020)
The news from Louisiana today is not as hard to bear as it was three days ago. But there is no cause for premature celebration.
Here is a picture from Brooklyn, New York published in the New York Times today showing a makeshift morgue in the back of a refrigerated truck trailer at a hospital for the overflow of corpses. In the greatest city in the United States, our financial capital and national cultural icon. On April 8, 2020.
Rough treated 2”x4” lumber, bed sheets, and Magic Marker ID’s to attend the dead.
Are you kidding me?
And we must listen to half-assed attempted blame shifting to China, WHO, political rivals, Governors of the Non-Preferred Party, newspaper reporters, and on and on. Everyone but those standing next to the Supposed Leader of the Free World.
A Totaly Monumental Disgrace, say I.
