Hello, and welcome back to the COVID-19 Data Dispatch!
This Sunday, I’m trying something different. It’s a stressful week here in the U.S., as we face the election and oncoming holidays while cases rise to 100,000 new diagnoses a day—more cases than China has seen in the entire course of the pandemic.
So, I’m giving you all this opportunity to ask me your COVID-19 questions. You can ask about data sources, best practices for the holidays, and everything in between, and I’ll point you to resources which may provide some answers. Just hit that Like & Comment button to get started.
I will be online to answer questions throughout the afternoon; then, in the evening, I’ll send out a brief newsletter with highlights from this thread and a few other news items.
And a quick disclaimer, before we get started: although I volunteer for the COVID Tracking Project, this newsletter reflects only my own reporting and explanations. In any data questions I answer, I am not communicating on behalf of the Project in any way.
Hi Betsy, In this time of pandemic fatigue, I am interested in rankings of reasonable activities to keep some economic sectors going without becoming part of the problem (i.e. infected). What are your favorite (or a favorite) source that ranks activities? Do you know of any detailed studies that gets at nuances (with my pod vs. with people not in my pod)?
Hi Betsy - long time reader, first time asker. Have we seen significant spikes in COVID in connection with national holidays, or are spikes largely attributable to other factors? Should we be expecting a Thanksgiving spike? What about an election protest spike?
Hi, Betsy -- Thanks for everything you do. I have a question from a school district leader that you might know offhand: "Do you know where I might find out which districts in the country currently have low positivity rates for staff/students, say under 2%?"
Hi Betsy, my extended family (3 households) have been extremely conservative throughout the pandemic and haven’t seen each other at all indoors. We’re thinking ahead to the holidays and trying to figure out the nuances of having a period of isolate-then-test before then “podding” in the same household for a week. For one person in one of the households, work restrictions mean that the longest that that person can work from home and thus isolate before the holidays is one week. Basically, we’re trying to decide if this is a reasonable decision. My question is, where can we go for trustworthy information about the risk curves associated with isolating for, say, 1 week vs. 2 weeks?
This thread is now closed; I won't be answering more questions today. Thank you to all who participated!
Hi Betsy, In this time of pandemic fatigue, I am interested in rankings of reasonable activities to keep some economic sectors going without becoming part of the problem (i.e. infected). What are your favorite (or a favorite) source that ranks activities? Do you know of any detailed studies that gets at nuances (with my pod vs. with people not in my pod)?
Hi Betsy - long time reader, first time asker. Have we seen significant spikes in COVID in connection with national holidays, or are spikes largely attributable to other factors? Should we be expecting a Thanksgiving spike? What about an election protest spike?
Hi, Betsy -- Thanks for everything you do. I have a question from a school district leader that you might know offhand: "Do you know where I might find out which districts in the country currently have low positivity rates for staff/students, say under 2%?"
Hi Betsy, my extended family (3 households) have been extremely conservative throughout the pandemic and haven’t seen each other at all indoors. We’re thinking ahead to the holidays and trying to figure out the nuances of having a period of isolate-then-test before then “podding” in the same household for a week. For one person in one of the households, work restrictions mean that the longest that that person can work from home and thus isolate before the holidays is one week. Basically, we’re trying to decide if this is a reasonable decision. My question is, where can we go for trustworthy information about the risk curves associated with isolating for, say, 1 week vs. 2 weeks?