Th3 Core

I wish they would report positivity rate. Reporting cases is like reporting the number of people caught for speeding or tax evasion. That one number just doesn't tell you enough to be informed.

One of my pet peeves is that journalists are generally terrible at statistics, which makes most statistics-based reporting terrible.

If you look at the surge in the context of the positivity rate, Florida looks terrifying

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida

My home state appears to be getting it right
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/vermont

If you look at CA, you see that it is setting highs for new cases, but the positivity rate isn't changing much.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/california

So though both CA and FL are setting records, CA is looking way better than FL and way worse than VT

New York's performance looks amazing
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/new-york

All the links I posted show state-level data for
 - tests
 - positives
 - positivity rate

Check out the graph for Florida. Not good. I'm actually surprised that CA is holding steady.

But there you go - it probably took us each less than five minutes to find that data, and yet most articles don't mention it because
1. Most journalists really don't understand statistics *at* *all*
2. They are on deadline and it is mostly a volume industry, not an insight industry

NC isn't doing great, cases & hospitalizations are creeping up --but at least case increases aren't exponential.  Daily deaths are declining over this past week.  When compared to the Southern states around us, we look fantastic.

https://covidtracking.com/data/state/north-carolina/#historical

^{Gov. DeSantis is Florida Man}

Florida reports more than 15,000 new cases, shattering record
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/12/florida-reports-more-than-15000-new-coronavirus-cases-shattering-record.html

Gyms are still open in my county, I don't understand the thinking there.

So, it is interesting, my county is doing better than most -- probably due to more mask wearing and a higher average education than the rest of the state, but some here think allowed means safe.  I  did a drive-by of my gym and there are people in there huffing and puffing away on the treadmills.  On the way to a mailbox today there were a group of 20 young maskless Mormons in close proximity to each other while filing their way into their ward.