Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

Join the party! The chances of exposure to the coronavirus in your county

edited August 2020 in Off-Topic
It's an interesting approach: Assume that you are attending an event with "x" number of attendees. "X" is a variable which may be adjusted between 10 and 10,000.

A research group at Georgia Tech have developed an interactive map which suggests/predicts, in each US county, the chances of exposure to the virus at such an event:

What are the chances of at least one person attending the event being a carrier of the coronavirus?

(The number of people attending may be set by using the "sliding lever" below and to the left of the map.)

From The San Francisco Chronicle:
Joshua Weitz, a professor of biological sciences at Georgia Tech and the lead developer of the COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, collaborated with fellow professor Clio Andris to develop it. The map was based on data from The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project as well as 2019 census data.

The tool’s origins, Weitz said, began in March when he was considering the implications of rising case counts. Friends and colleagues were asking him about the chances that someone might be infected at an event.

Comments

  • Thank you !!!
    Sending to the non-believers on an email list.
    Might help.
  • It appears I am almost 20 times safer being here in small town Western Oregon than I would currently be at my old address in gulf coast Florida! One thought...studies indicate people may continue to test positive for a period of weeks after they stop being infectious. So, this map appears to represent an upper bound estimate.
  • edited August 2020
    Really cool graphics OJ. I wonder if an event where people congregate would be the same risk as going to the grocery store where there may be 50-100 people dispersed around the store at any given time. My county's risk for 50-100 people is 25-43% that at least 1 person is in my vicinity - infected. That infected person is probably that bozo who pulls his mask down to use as a chin warmer.

    risk level definition:
    The risk level is the estimated chance (0-100%) that at least 1 COVID-19 positive individual will be present at an event in a county, given the size of the event.
  • Does indoor or outdoor attendance show in the above link ? Also type of venue ?
    Stay Safe, Derf
  • edited August 2020
    Hawaii: headline today, featured on KHON2 website: https://www.khon2.com/coronavirus/lt-gov-recommends-shutting-down-for-two-weeks/
    The Lt. Gov. wants to shut down again, for 2 weeks. (05 Aug '20.)
  • msf
    edited August 2020
    Derf said:

    Does indoor or outdoor attendance show in the above link ? Also type of venue ?
    Stay Safe, Derf

    The tool is more for fun and getting a stratospheric view than for precise analytics. So it might be helpful to someone like a chart reader-in-chief who prefers reading colored charts (see all the pretty red in Florida?). But don't put too much faith in the actual numbers.

    For example, here's a piece from The Atlantic's Covid Tracking Project (the source of much of the tool's data) explaining why it's not necessarily meaningful to compare NY's and Fla's peak per capita case rates. In a nutshell, NY was unable to do as much testing (it was overwhelmed back in April), so it didn't capture the same fraction of actual cases as did Florida. (Cuomo had a study done to get a better handle on the actual case rate per capita, that suggested over 1/5 of NYC had the coronavirus at the time.)

    Even for tests done today, different states are testing differently, so the figures are still not comparable. Nevertheless, the tool assumes a 10x factor (actual vs. tested), or 5x if you change the setting at the bottom left. Independent of state.

    Inside or outside doesn't matter - this is just showing the probability of coming into contact with someone that's Covid-positive if you "meet" N people. It doesn't care whether you meet them concurrently at an event or consecutively walking along a street. By default, N is set to 100, but you can change that also.

    This number is important because the greater N is, the greater the difference in probabilities. Suppose you're comparing two regions, one where 1% of the populace have the virus, one where 2% have the virus.

    If you meet one person, the probability of being "safe" (not encountering someone with the virus) is 99% in region 1, and 98% in region 2. Now you meet a second person (same party or wherever). The probability that you're safe (neither person you met had the virus) is 99% x 99% = 98.01% in region 1, and 96.04% in region 2. The difference between the two regions grows exponentially.

    After "meeting" 10 people, the probability of still being "safe" is 99% ^ 10 ~= 90.44% in region 1, and 98% ^ 10 ~= 81.71% in region 2.

    Again, this tool just approximates one factor in how likely you are to become infected. That depends not only on the number of infected people you come into contact with, but, as you implied, how that contact takes place and what precautions you take.
  • @msf- Yes, this algorithm surely can't give you a "hard number", but it is very helpful in making the point that the more people that you're exposed to, the greater the danger.

    To some extent it can factor in the national "comparison between counties variable", but obviously the present national reporting setup is so inconsistent and undependable that this is only an educated guess at best.

    The map site itself notes the difficulty in evaluation:
    "Based on seroprevalence data [the level of a pathogen in a population, as measured in blood serum], we assume there are ten times more cases than are being reported (10:1 ascertainment bias). In places with more testing availability, that rate may be lower.
    If the map encourages people to take proper precautions, it's done some good.
  • Crash said:

    Hawaii: headline today, featured on KHON2 website: https://www.khon2.com/coronavirus/lt-gov-recommends-shutting-down-for-two-weeks/
    The Lt. Gov. wants to shut down again, for 2 weeks. (05 Aug '20.)

    It looks like all the islands are getting hit hard now with new coronavirus cases. Any sense for what is going on? (It looks like my month in Molokai may not happen this winter. But.....condo reservation cancellation not required until December.)

    Place..................Change in daily cases in last 7 days (Top 4)
    Guam.................112%
    Virgin Islands.....97%
    Hawaii................91%
    California............75%
    https://washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_gfx-virus-tracker%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans&itid=hp_hp-top-table-main_gfx-virus-tracker%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

  • edited August 2020
    The only probable safe place is probably South-Pole
    New Zealand was doing well too but not quite sure currently with small new clusters breakouts
  • location (alone) will matter only for a while, as NZ is finding out

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/how-to-test-every-american-for-covid-19-every-day/615217/

    pub date yesterday, Aug 14

    Many Americans ... may not understand is that [testing] is failing, now. In each of the past two weeks, and for the first time since the pandemic began, the country performed fewer COVID-19 tests than it did in the week prior. The system is deteriorating. ...
    “The only thing that makes a difference in the economy is public health, and the only thing that makes a difference in public health is testing,” Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, told us.
  • edited August 2020
    @davfor Lt. Gov. is PISSED, claims DOH just isn't up to the task, not enough contact tracers, though assurances of expanding the staff were given. A surprise visit from some State Senators has LG and them calling now for new LEADERSHIP. Gov. Ige is considering, thinking, pondering, ruminating... shit. New lockdown is probably in our future. Quarantine from out of State still in force. 14 days. Scofflaws have been arrested, and those using the closed beach-parks are getting fined. "You can walk through the park to the ocean, but you can't hang around. Go straight to your car--- which cannot be parked AT the parks, because they're closed." (More shit.) Gotta follow the rules, it's just so demoralizing.
  • @davidmoran, That was a very informative article you posted. Thanks.
  • Crash said:
    I hope Gabbard gets her Congressional investigation if there really was $50 million provided for contact tracing and testing. Some level of accountability is reasonable to expect, even in Hawaii.
  • With Gabbard's upcoming departure , congressional favorite Kai Kahele may have to follow up on this in January 2021,if necessary.
  • edited August 2020
    @Crash It sounds like Oahu's rail line project is trying to give Boston's Big Dig a run for the money. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig ) Oregon not long ago had what for it was a record breaking boondogle project on a short stretch of highway I drive most weeks when going from the Willamette Valley to the coast ( https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/324868-203835-odots-bumpy-road-to-cost-management- )

    Having been everything from an occasional winter time visitor to a full-time home owner/resident in Hawaii during the past 50+ years, it's my clear sense Hawaii has a distinct relationship with the mainland and mainlanders. The laid back Hawaii Time approach extends to its attitude towards dollars that flow there from Washington D.C. and other mainland locations. Fifteen years owning and managing a vacation rental condo on Molokai (8,000 person population) provided first-hand experience dealing as a semi-outsider with full-time island residents who often treat each other as members of an extended family. People like me were simply viewed a good source of extra income when it came to doing business. Accepting as partially inevitable that "Hawaii is where tax dollars (as well as other mainland dollars) go to disappear" proved to be quite helpful during those 15 years!
  • $9B/20 miles ($450M/mile) is right in line with average costs, including foreign countries where construction costs are much lower. But all this comparison really shows is that one can't simply look at price tags, both because each project is unique and because construction does cost big bucks.
    At least 150 [transit] projects have been initiated since 1990, according to a recent study by Yale University researcher David Schleicher.

    The approximate average cost of the projects — both in the U.S. and abroad — has been less than $500 million per track mile, the study concluded.
    The estimated cost of the Long Island Rail Road project, known as “East Side Access,” has ballooned to $12 billion, or nearly $3.5 billion for each new mile of track — seven times the average elsewhere in the world. The recently completed Second Avenue subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the 2015 extension of the No. 7 line to Hudson Yards also cost far above average, at $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion per mile, respectively.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html

    As you can see, that article is nearly three years old. What was "completed" on the Second Ave subway line was just the first phase (3 stops) of a multi-phase plan.
    Phase 2 of the Second Ave. Subway. This three-stop, 1.5-mile northern extension of the current Q train would see the train stopping at 106th St. and Second Ave., 116th St. and Second Ave., and 125th St. and Lexington Ave., connecting to Metro-North and the East Side IRT while bringing subway service to East Harlem. This project is expected to use parts of tunnels dug out in the 1970s and may cost over $6 billion [$4B/mile].

    That’s not a typo, and it’s not quite clear what the final cost will be.
    http://secondavenuesagas.com/2019/09/23/mta-officials-cite-fire-code-in-defending-6-billion-cost-for-phase-2-of-the-second-ave-subway/

    While the Big Dig was highway construction, FWIW, the cost per mile (in 2020 dollars) was $2.87B/mile. That's using Wikipedia's $21.5B cost, and a distance of 7.5 miles from USA Today and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Big Dig Facts and Figures).

  • edited August 2020
    ...And the whole State of MA paid into the Big Dig project. As if it were going to be useful to the handful of western MA carpoolers who had to look all the way over to the Boston area to find a job. Not to mention the vast majority of western MA folks who NEVER go to Boston. Someone decided to throw us a bone, back then: the toll was removed from the Turnpike, west of Springfield. But a great many on the Turnpike were aiming for Springfield, or lived in Springfield. It was only from WEST Springfield over to the NY line that there was no toll. Western MA is forever simply overlooked at the State House. ... But on one rare visit to Boston, I was glad to discover this fabulous frieze just outside the State House dedicated to the all-black MA 54th Regiment.
    https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x89e3709c9a2a79d1:0xa2e5d5a28d08bc80!3m1!7e115!4shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNZR1LT90ubg6CLFD-nDWa3zDcrITbtaJvZmwii=w225-h160-k-no!5s54th ma regiment memorial boston - Google Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNZR1LT90ubg6CLFD-nDWa3zDcrITbtaJvZmwii&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjiy5fC9KDrAhUxNX0KHajrDXkQoiowEHoECBcQBg
  • @Crash The memorial is impressive. Several decades ago I walked through the Commons near it almost daily on route from a small apartment on Joy St. (on Beacon Hill) to the Federal Reserve Bank where I was employed at the time.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gould_Shaw_Memorial

  • image

    File Source

    Yes, a very well done memorial. My wife and I were quite overwhelmed when we ran across it on the Commons.
  • It is splendid, indeed. NEVER FORGET.
Sign In or Register to comment.