Just for a moment, why don’t we stop all the hype, the press briefings, the models, the bending of the curve and get down to brass tacks? It would seem that a reality check is needed, here. As Americans sit home a la Betsy Ross and dust-off Grandma’s sewing machine to make masks, perhaps some data is in order. The best place to begin is with a Coronavirus state tracker outlining deaths, trends, and more.
Stat reports on health and medicine and offers a lot in the way of data concerning COVID-19 and little in terms of opinion. It could be just what America might need at this odd time in our history. Here’s their snapshot of the virus statistics in the U.S. as of April 5.
Total cases reported – 337,646
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 – 9,648
Current U.S. death rate – 2.9%
New York, as everyone knows, has been hit the hardest. Here are the Empire State numbers:
Total cases reported – 123,160
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 – 4,159
Current NY death rate – 3.4%
This tells us that 43% of U.S. deaths attributed to the Coronavirus have occurred in the state of New York. Now let’s hop on over to the second-highest infected state – that of New Jersey:
Total cases reported – 37,505
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 – 917
Current NJ death rate – 2.4%
Thus, we can ascertain by these numbers that 53% of all U.S. Coronavirus deaths are coming from the two states of New York and New Jersey. The state with the third-highest infection rate is Michigan, and frankly, it’s not in the same league as the first two. Total cases reported in Michigan are 15,718. Next comes California with 15,158 and Louisiana with 13,010.
Data shows the death rate is still bouncing up and down in New York and New Jersey. On April 3, 835 people passed away from COVID-19 then on April 4, New York reported 347 deaths, and on April 5, their numbers shot up again to 594. New Jersey is experiencing a similar situation with 182 who died on April 2, 109 on April 3 and 200 on April 4. The data for April 5 in New Jersey shows just 71 deaths.
If you throw out the numbers for the top five and bottom five states, removing the extreme highs and lows – the other 40 U.S. states (including Puerto Rico) will have suffered an average of 70 deaths from Coronavirus.
It seems worth the effort to look dispassionately at these numbers so Americans can determine whether the national response to the Coronavirus has been appropriate or disproportionate to the crisis at hand.
For a detailed graph of these numbers, please click here.
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Read more from Leesa K. Donner.
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