An update on WA’s coronavirus status.
As has been noted in a Twitter screenshot I’ve seen a number of people sharing, one of the key metrics to track is not the number of cases, but the number of deaths, and how quickly that number is growing. According to the Twitter post from Dr. Sam Wang of Princeton, “If the ‘doubling time’ of these slows to more than 3 days, we’re starting to bend the curve.”
According to a graphic from the New York Times, as of this morning, WA’s ‘doubling time’ is nine days.
This is good news. WA may have been first in the US to get seriously hit, and there have been some hiccups, but overall, we’ve been doing a good job of social distancing and controlling the situation as much as possible.
I’ve even seen other (currently unsourced) comments indicating that the UW medical center is not only not overwhelmed, but aren’t even as whelmed as they expected to be at this point, and are offering assistance to other places.
None of this means we’re out of the woods yet. But they’re all good signs that we’re doing the right things, however frustrating they may be.
Keep it up, everyone!