Patchwork Pandemic
Since the early days of the pandemic, leaders around the world have relied on data to make decisions with important public health and economic consequences, such as when to lift social distancing restrictions, allow public gatherings or reopen businesses – some of the many measures taken to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
That’s why the Chattanooga Times Free Press took on a project to better understand potential associations between mitigation efforts and community spread of the virus. To accomplish that, we tracked key events and visualized them alongside publicly available COVID-19 data for new daily cases, new daily hospitalizations and deaths to create a graphic representation of the “epidemic curve” in six counties across the region.
The analysis found a patchwork of regulations implemented at different times and places across the region, instances where the presence or lack of mitigation policies may have affected transmission rates and some stark differences in how the pandemic has impacted the counties – hence the title, “Patchwork Pandemic.”
The graphics and analysis will hit the paper on Sunday, followed by a deeper dive on Monday and Tuesday into the county that stood out among the rest.
I hope you all enjoy, and until then, here’s this week’s top health care stories,
– Elizabeth Fite, health care reporter, efite@timesfreepress.com