Which projections do you like better?
Or would you prefer that we made policy without the use of projections?
Ok, I'll do something a little easier than beds that makes the same point. Experts: Joe Biden (JB) and CDC Director Robert Redfield (R)
You cannot be travelling during these holidays, as much as you want to,” the president-elect said.
www.forbes.com
“We’re likely to lose another 250,000 people dead between now and January,” Biden said.
On Wednesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield projected
200,000 more coronavirus deaths in December.
Wait, what? 250,000 deaths in December? <opens calculator app on phone> That comes to an average of 8,064.5 deaths/day. How? At our peak this summer, we had a 7-day average of 2,232. Redfield comes in at 6451.6 deaths/day. Today was big at 2610. That less than a third of the AVERAGE that Biden predicts and barely 40% of what Redfield predicts. The current 7-day average is 1531. How do we get to those averages? Cases must be growing, big time, right?
Well, not exactly.
I can get that deaths/day will increase since deaths lag cases and we are in the midst of a steep increase. However, you can see that before the 7-day average case graph crosses 150,000 it is concave down. I'm guessing that little peak in cases just prior to Thanksgiving is the "extra" folks getting tested before they travel. I have a feeling it would be flatter and a better match with the cases after Thanksgiving that are lower as people didn't test Thanksgiving day and likely not as often in the following weekend (just a guess). To me, this looks like the peak is about now. This doesn't indicate to me a 4 to 5 fold increase in deaths is in the offing.
So, I looked at the state trends to see if anything there might indicate a significant near-term rise. The highest states in cases are all trending down. Only NY is growing and (barely) concave up. The west coast, north-east and mid-Atlantic have some states that are increasing a bit. Everything I see indicates a near term drop in cases. I just don't see how we get anywhere near those numbers as a daily average. I guess the "wildcard" is the Thanksgiving effect - which, so far, appears to be no effect at all. Maybe it's coming.
I'd go with a range of 60,000 - 70,000. 2000/day --> 62,000. Nothing I see indicates it should be much more than that. I guess we'll see. Let's hope I'm correct - 200,000, is a huge number.
Deaths in December:
JB: 250,000
R: 200,000
K: 62,000
And, finally, Grace and dad, knock it off or I'll tell the parents. I can't tell you how many times I heard that from my older brothers.