Fun with COVID-19 reporting in MA (and elsewhere)

After seeing weeks of average daily cases dropping by pretty significant numbers, the drop between Feb 7 and Feb 14 is significantly lower. Jan 17->Jan 24 drop: 642.43 Jan 24->Jan 31 drop: 859.29 Jan 31->Feb  7 drop: 575.29 Feb  7->Feb 14 drop: 614.14 Feb 14->Feb 21 drop: 308.71 Now, maybe Feb 14 was an anomaly, right?  Well, then again, Mon Feb 22, with the count still increasing, has a higher case count than any day going back to the week before last.  Tues, Feb 23 is only surpassed by 2 days the preceding week and I would fully expect it to bypass those shortly. But that's fine, we've reduced our cases significantly in comparison to [checks back to May]... right, we haven't gotten down to May numbers yet.  But what's the difference between the numbers when we re-opened to Phase 1 back in May and now when we're re-opening to Phase 3 Step 2 really?  Oh, we're 173% of the number we saw that first week?  Oh, that seems somewhat substantia...

Just a friendly reminder that I'm using state numbers for total cases in reporting from each week but using a calculation that is a better approximation of the cases we've seen every 2 weeks by taking the totals from the report 2 weeks ago and comparing to the report of the week.  For an explanation of why this is more appropriate, read over my post about it:  https://funwithmacovid-19reporting.blogspot.com/2020/10/why-weekly-community-numbers-reported.html Green  - Less than 4 cases per 100,000 people per day Yellow   - Greater than or equal to 4 and less than 8 cases per 100,000 people per day Orange  - Greater than or equal to 8 and less than 16 cases per 100,000 people per day Red  - Greater than or equal to 16 and less than 24 cases per 100,000 people per day  Maroon - Greater than or equal to 24 and less than 40 cases per 100,000 people per day Purple - Greater than or equal to 40 and less than 64 cases per 100,000 people...

Green  - Less than 4 cases per 100,000 people per day Yellow   - Greater than or equal to 4 and less than 8 cases per 100,000 people per day Orange  - Greater than or equal to 8 and less than 16 cases per 100,000 people per day Red  - Greater than or equal to 16 and less than 24 cases per 100,000 people per day  Maroon - Greater than or equal to 24 and less than 40 cases per 100,000 people per day Purple - Greater than or equal to 40 and less than 64 cases per 100,000 people per day Black   - Greater  than  or equal to 64  cases  per 100,000 people per day Information right next to the city/town name is the most recent information and the furthest to the right is the furthest back.  Each number is the outcome of taking this week's data, subtracting the data from 2 weeks ago, and dividing by 14 (to get the per day) and then dividing by the population of the location (to get the per person) and then multi...

I'm excited! I'm excited! I still have an A1C above 10% (6.5% being the cut off to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetic) but I got down below the 20% I jumped up to recently after doubling my A1C. As a result of my decline in A1C, I'm going to stop exercising and watching what I eat, even though in the last couple weeks my efforts have shown less progress than they had a month ago..... what? you think that's a bad plan? You think I should keep working toward my goals and not let up, especially with cases not reducing as quickly with the current restrictions as they were just a few weeks ago and that I should be cautious about the plan to re-open further and then go to phase 4 in March even though the schedule for vaccinations doesn't have us even reaching the general population by then? Sorry, did I confuse you with my shift in topics where at first you thought I was talking about weight loss and now you understand that I'm talking about the fact that we're still...

I was looking at the decline in cases in Somerville and thinking "wow, that's pretty great".... then I looked at where we were in early November ... One third the cases we've seen in the last 2 weeks.  Don't get me wrong, great progress has been made in the last month... but we've still got a long way to go before we get back to the point where I was getting alarmed by how high our cases had gotten. 

Just a friendly reminder that I'm using state numbers for total cases in reporting from each week but using a calculation that is a better approximation of the cases we've seen every 2 weeks by taking the totals from the report 2 weeks ago and comparing to the report of the week.  For an explanation of why this is more appropriate, read over my post about it:  https://funwithmacovid-19reporting.blogspot.com/2020/10/why-weekly-community-numbers-reported.html Green  - Less than 4 cases per 100,000 people per day Yellow   - Greater than or equal to 4 and less than 8 cases per 100,000 people per day Orange  - Greater than or equal to 8 and less than 16 cases per 100,000 people per day Red  - Greater than or equal to 16 and less than 24 cases per 100,000 people per day  Maroon - Greater than or equal to 24 and less than 40 cases per 100,000 people per day Purple - Greater than or equal to 40 and less than 64 cases per 100,000 people...