Visualizing American Covid-19 Deaths

I saw a bunch of headlines from a few days ago that framed the current daily American COVID-19 death rate as "1 death per x second", which I found fundamentally pretty scary- yesterday (10/31) there were 960 deaths, which means 86k seconds in a day/960 deaths = 1 death every ~90 seconds yesterday (and probably today too). By the time you finish reading, another American is probably dead.

Inspired by https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article...

Data from https://covidtracking.com/

What frustrates me most about this whole event is that covid 19 deaths can never accurate, per CDC guidance.

“In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID–19 cannot be made, but it is suspected or likely (e.g., the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a death certificate as “probable” or “presumed.” In these instances, certifiers should use their best clinical judgement in determining if a COVID–19 infection was likely. However, please note that testing for COVID–19 should be conducted whenever possible.” [0]

What this means to me is that the number of CV19 deaths - while tragic - can easily be exacerbated into a political weapon while distracting us from other issues.

I wish everyone would just wear a mask. A jacket doesn’t prevent you from freezing, but every little bit helps.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/vsrg/vsrg03-508.pdf