US COVID Update - Over-reaction over Texas and Florida.
This is from CDC data I collected on 7/16/2020. The weekly data of the past several weeks is incomplete. A few states have not reported last week's data, which is the most incomplete anyways, so I did not graph it. It should be noted that the latest number of deaths will increase for each of the past several weeks, as data is updated over time. I am not quite sure why, but it appears that the states are being more careful to label deaths as CV-19 deaths, and are taking more time to sort it out.
The first chart shows the CV-19 death rates (per million state residents). As you can see, the number of deaths in Florida and Texas are dwarfed by what happened in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The current panic and over-reaction in the mainstream media over Texas and Florida is obviously absurd.
The second chart is the same data, but showing the past several weeks, and the y-axis is scaled down so we can see more clearly how the states compare the last 8 weeks. Now in the end, when it is all tallied up, the number of deaths per million due to CV-19 in Texas and Florida may become a little higher than the other states. But look at the scale - Texas and Florida will never come close to the death rates in the three east coast states. Not even close.
The third chart shows all the weekly data for Texas and Florida only, so that the scale of the y-axis can be reduced so we can see the trends more clearly. It looks like Florida did have a peak in deaths, and they are slowly dropping. But in Texas, we have not peaked yet, but the CV-19 death rate has stayed much, much lower than the three east coast states. When the last several weeks are better updated by the CDC, Texas may be peaking right now, as the final data will show a higher death rates, especially the last few weeks. But again, look at the scale, compared with the east coast states!
Clearly, today's panic in the MSM over Texas and Florida is unwarranted.
My best guess is that the east coast states peaked hard and early, and the population might be approaching herd immunity, which is why the number of cases and even the % of test cases that are positive for CV-19 is currently higher in Texas and Florida than the other states shown here. It is not likely because one or more states are currently doing a better job of prevention. This is a very contagious virus, and Texas and Florida might take longer to reach herd immunity levels. This last paragraph is just me trying to explain the data, and is just a guess, of course. It would also explain why the demonstrations in the east coast states did not cause a rapid rise in case rates, but in Texas and Florida and other states with much lower death rates (and infected rates), perhaps they did.