Around the world, people are working to keep each other safe and slow the spread of the virus. We are sheltering in place, self-quarantining, and practicing social distance. How do we know if our efforts to defeat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are working? Are we beating COVID-19 yet or not? This explanation from One Minute Physics has some insights to offer. Use the insights in this video to answer that question for yourself as new data pours in and the situation alters from one day to the next. Live, learn, and wash your hands.
You’ve probably noticed that this video isn’t just a minute long and it isn’t about physics. What gives? Well, our scientist friends are thinking outside the box to bring us useful insights into what is going on in the world around us. Thank you, scientists!
Resources
Grant’s 3Blue1Brown Video: Exponential Growth and Epidemics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0t…
Aatish’s Exponential/Logistic Curve-Fitting Site: https://github.com/aatishb/covid/blob…
Data Source: https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COV…
Our World in Data Page on Coronavirus: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
How many tests for COVID-19 are being performed around the world? https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing
Understanding logarithmic scales: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/he…
What we can learn from the countries winning the coronavirus fight: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-2…
(Great explainer on log scales and growth curves explained in the context of COVID-19 in different countries) This video is a collaboration with Aatish Bhatia about how to see the COVID-19 tipping point – we present a better way to graph COVID-19 coronavirus cases using a logarithmic scale in “phase space” – plotting the growth rate against the cumulative cases, rather than either of these against time.
