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Further thoughts, on “peaking” of the pandemic

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Recently, we here at UD saw that global trend lines are curving over from exponential growth in new Covid-19 cases. Likewise, health authorities have been talking of the US and the UK peaking in perhaps ten days. Where I am, we are still growing: one, two, five, nine total. (And no, Black the Ripper is not credibly a Covid-19 case.)

Here’s a graphic that gives pause, with labelled phases — recall, the crest of new infections is the inflexion point on the growing arm of the S-curve of cumulative cases:

But, the further consideration is, onward waves triggered by fresh outbreaks or new strains once lock-downs . . . which cannot be long sustained . . . are relaxed:

These are schematic, here is a plot of the 1918 – 20 Spanish Flu’s waves, echoed in the death rates:

The peaking is coming through in how doubling times for cases to date are stretching:

A similar pattern is there in the 3-day rolling average, though US is spiking up again:

Let me add, daily cases log-lin curve:

So, it looks like we are going peak, though the peak may be more of a plateau before it falls.

Then, the next challenge is to find a more sustainable strategy than economy lock downs. Hopefully, treatments and vaccinations will make the difference, the sooner the better. END

Comments
@ EG
Most of the error in the common testing method (PCR) is associated with the sample collection,
I guess those meat-robots need an update.Truthfreedom
April 9, 2020
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OLV, GP is a physician in one of the hardest hit countries. I suspect he is busy. Let us pray, he fares well. KFkairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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This may be of interest
THE BEST GRAPHS AND DATA FOR TRACKING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/2/21201832/novel-coronavirus-covid-19-best-graphs-tracking-data JOHNS HOPKINS 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS VISUAL DASHBOARD https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html THE COVID TRACKING PROJECT https://covidtracking.com/data/ 91-DIVOC http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/ WORLDOMETER https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ IHME COVID-19 PROJECTIONS https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections COVID ACT NOW https://covidactnow.org/
bornagain77
April 9, 2020
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Vivid
She tested negative but they told her that 30% of tests register false negatives.
KF
Vivid, that’s significant. What is the rate of false positives?
Most of the error in the common testing method (PCR) is associated with the sample collection, not with the actual testing step. As such, I would expect to see a higher false negative rate than false positives. Here is a good article on why we see high false negative. https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/9/21213730/coronavirus-test-false-negative-results-isolation-treatmentEd George
April 9, 2020
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@12 Vividbleau: That's good news.Truthfreedom
April 9, 2020
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KF, This OP is an excellent collection of graphical illustrations of the current situation and potential trends. Thank you for the effort to put this together for us here. This information you’ve gathered may help us to understand better what’s going on and what to expect in the near future, at least regarding this pandemic. Off topic: Any news from UD scientific contributor GPuccio? Haven’t seen his insightful technical posts since long time ago. I think he was preparing an OP on ID in immunology. I hope to see him back soon.OLV
April 9, 2020
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KF She is much recovered after 8 days, family good, they all got out of the house and drove to a secluded out of the way place yesterday and enjoyed the outdoors. PS I was asking Jim T about his parents sorry for the confusion Vividvividbleau
April 9, 2020
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JT, I missed that. How are your parents? KFkairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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Vivid, that's significant. What is the rate of false positives? I do know they seem to do a double test before ruling positive. KF PS: How is Daughter in Law, do you have any better picture? How are others?kairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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KF Learned a lot from my daughter in laws episode. She tested negative but they told her that 30% of tests register false negatives. BTW after 8 days finally got to go outside. Jim your parents good? Vividvividbleau
April 9, 2020
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@DaveS The logic, it was explained to me, is why waste a Covid test on a dead person when we could use it on a live person which might help their treatment. Which makes sense. It just has the bonus effect of reducing the actual numbers of confirmed cases.Jim Thibodeau
April 9, 2020
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DS, every statistic is riddled with issues, see here https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus KF PS Note China's wave 2, a weak one. S Korea has a plateau. Maybe we have wave and low plateau superimposed.kairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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JT, I've read articles stating that; I'm still not clear on the testing situation overall.daveS
April 9, 2020
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@6 Kairosfocus
We need a vaccine ASAP.
We just need to wait, until one of those magical vaccines auto-creates itself. Like universes, you know.Truthfreedom
April 9, 2020
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DS, I added another plot. China is on a low amplitude wave 2 and S Korea has a plateau. The latter is a concern as it points to a residual pool and long term problem that can trigger onward waves. We may have to try for herd immunity. We need a vaccine ASAP. KFkairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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JT, we are all looking at proxies, that the real signal breaks through, never mind issues. (I recall discussions at UD on that -- my perspective here is that of strategic decision making.) BTW, GDP and price indices, stock market indices etc are all proxies, too. I have suggested in earlier threads that we need to do random or stratified random antibody based tests adjusted for demographics on a tracking basis, ideally. I doubt that proper antibody tests are yet in hand. When we have that sort of data, we can calibrate proper population models. But for fighting the campaign, a strategic management challenge, proxies are good enough. KF PS: In the case of the US, I doubt that a significant number of people who are seriously ill will not be hospitalised. How Covid-19 cases and deaths are identified is problematic globally. Singling out the US without that context erects a strawman. The US, BTW has done coming on 2 million tests, recovering from a stumble with an early FDA test. PPS: I added a log-lin world in data tracking curve. Notice, curve-over and how China is on a clear wave 2. Much smaller amplitude, though.kairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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Did you know that if you die at home in America you don’t get tested for COVID-19? I keep waiting for an adequate testing regime to appear, and I keep waiting.Jim Thibodeau
April 9, 2020
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DS, history tends to repeat, on steroids. KFkairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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Figure 3, the "conceptual global infection curve", says something about human short-sightedness (along with other factors).daveS
April 9, 2020
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Further thoughts, on “peaking” of the pandemic --> Sorry, a day later than I thoughtkairosfocus
April 9, 2020
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