Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Florida vs NY Covid-19 Comparison is Enlightening
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Old 04-23-2020, 07:05 AM
lindaelane lindaelane is offline
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Default Compare Number of Deaths

Please...stop saying "Florida tested less than NY so the analysis is invalid".

You can ignore the "number of cases" column. This number is not comparable for any two states or countries due to differences in testing.

Pay attention to the "deaths" column. It is more valid for comparisons between states.

Its still not perfect, for instance, NY City added a large number of people "presumed to have died of Covid" and I'm not sure Florida has done that. But if this number was subtracted from NY's total, Florida would still have far fewer deaths. The difference in deaths is so great, its hard to attribute it to differential reporting.

So something is going on to make NY City different than Florida...that's obvious (public transport, international flights) but also NY State. Can it be fully accounted for by such things commuters to the NY suburbs (e.g. Westchester County) with subsequent travel by them and those they infect into the rest of the state? We don't know.

It's preliminary, but some scientists believe public transportation is the most common place in which the virus is spread. We do not have that here. It could make a substantial difference in rates of infection.