Sobering graph of cause of death March to May

[edhopper]

Last edited Thu May 7, 2020, 05:34 PM - Edit history (1)

https://infogram.com/1p6klxed3qzgrjb5yg7p3xrpvpb3nmvvlw3

Click the arrow under the graph to see the animation.

[BigmanPigman]

1. That is some "hoax", isn't it.

[edhopper]

2. Not a hoax

but "just like the flu."

[localroger]

3. The chaos after mid-April

...is partly due to the mid-March countermeasures kicking in in the hardest hit areas like NYC and NOLA (deaths lag those countermeasures by a few weeks) and the virus moving into previously unaffected areas where there are no countermeasures or they weren't taken seriously. So it falls back from the previously explosively growing areas, but surges in others. Think of those surges when they suggest relaxing the countermeasures.

[qwlauren35]

4. Misleading figure

If anyone ever talks about the 1.35 million car accident deaths, and 3000 victims per day, know that it is a GLOBAL figure, and the US only figure is around 40,000/year or 90 per day.

I saw some misleading stats recently, and went digging to see how I got them.

[edhopper]

5. I think all the numbers on the graph

are for the US.

[qwlauren35]

7. Yes.

They are. But when you Google the numbers, sometimes you see a very high figure, and might believe that we have 3000 deaths per day from car accidents, and it's worse than COVID-19, and how come people aren't upset about 3000 deaths per day the way they are upset about COVID-19, and America doesn't shut down just because we have car accidents... blah, blah, blah.

I think Hannity came up with these misleading figures on one of his shows.

So, there are people out there who think that car accidents are worse than COVID-19 because he showed global figures.

It's part of the whole "it's not so bad, why make a big deal over it" bullshit that we're dealing with around the country. "COVID-19 deaths don't matter - I want a haircut."

The reality - nothing in our country kills people at a rate of 2000/day.

[edhopper]

9. Yeah,

I have see that kind of bullshit too. Thanks.

[Alex4Martinez]

6. Maybe add this instruction to your OP: "Animation, click on the play button to watch"

The static view is unimpressive. It took me a while to figure this out.

Hitting play reveals a day by day view of Covid 19 deaths for each day compared to the average per/day deaths by other causes.

Thanks!

[edhopper]

8. Done

Thanks

[Ms. Toad]

10. Just be sure when you watch it that you recognize that they are comparing apples to oranges.

The numbers for every other cause of death are the average daily deaths.

The COVID 19 deaths are a snapshot on a specific day.

[edhopper]

11. I don't agree

while the others are average, they are a good snapshot.

It does compare COVID deaths to the other causes.

And when we do a monthly graph, it will be a more accurate comparison statistically.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Facts are facts.

As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion - not to your own facts.

Fact: All of the others are average deaths per day (apples)
Fact: COVID 19 is the total number of deaths on a single day (oranges)

The chart compares apples to oranges.

You may think the comparison is appropriate or helpful, but we're supposed to be the party that respects and values facts. And whether you agree or not does not changes the fact that this is an apples to oranges comparison.

If you wanted to an apples to apples comparison, you would compute the average daily deaths from the first death through that day's deaths and plot it against the average number of deaths. The average number of COVID 19 deaths would creep up more slowly and be much smaller (it ends up 4th-ish on the list).

Or you could look up the statistics on those same days from other causes and do a snapshot to snapshot comparison.

But, at a minimum, if the people who were creating the animation were honest, they would be very clear about what they are comparing - and they are not doing so.

[cwydro]

16. Thank you for an informative post.

I see what you’re saying.

[smirkymonkey]

12. K&R

[raptor_rider]

13. So sobering

That people are not dying of other conditions anymore. It’s alllll COVID-19 now... Amazing how it’s eradicating even cancer!!! 🙄

[Ms. Toad]

15. Which is another reason the chart needs to be clearly labeled.

The underlying assumption is that the deaths from all other causes are static from one day to the next - and, as you observed, deaths from other causes are going down. That is not represented in this animation.