Day 199: The Rotten Apple

Long-time PlagueBlog readers may recall Day 2 of the coronavirus pandemic (February 2nd), on which New York City had a COVID-19 false alarm. They didn't really get going until Day 32 (March 3rd), and now, despite being the most recovered and immune place in the nation, they have a new problem: the death of New York City. A few days ago, James Altucher wrote up a resigned obituary of the city that never sleeps, recounting its death spiral in scenes from a rats-deserting-the-sinking-ship scrapbook he's been keeping. It's depressing. And I say that as a Bostonian who wants New York City to die just on principle.

As a Bostonian I also have to worry about whether it will happen here. Somerville has already made The Atlantic as a poster city for bad COVID decisions about sending children to school (one of the most basic functions of a modern society), not to mention our governor being the very first example in their article against the Fun Police.

The combination of criminalization and unscientific moralism is ineffective and counterproductive, and often leads authorities to take actions that may yield more infection.

We even need a map to track how many local colleges and universities have gone online this fall, despite our state being just as recovered as New York. I think the only thing we really lack here is a chattering class to navel-gaze about how many of their friends have moved to Phoenix or the woods and how many of their favorite restaurants have closed.

Massachusetts' cases are up a fifth of a percentage point today. Here is a map incorporating the new columns of the cities and towns data; the daily rate seems to be just a fourteenth of the bi-weekly rate (that we were computing for you out of the bi-weekly case counts), with certain towns omitted. As usual, we have estimated the rates for the omitted towns. The MDPH is also tracking the change in percent positivity explicitly. Though PlagueBlog considers this a relatively silly value, it is included in the map below.

(Pop out.)