The daily numbers are often misleading due to patchy reporting, lags in test results, and the vagaries of weekly testing patterns. New case numbers are often not put in context of number of tests being done. There are lots of pretty graphs but, lacking or obscuring this context, they don't provide much useful information.
When I do see or hear numbers pop up in local media, it's often offered without meaningful information about larger trends and lends itself to the same horserace/it's all sports mentality that afflicts political coverage.
I put together my own spreadsheet based on my local health agency's data to try to get a more objective sense of how things are really progressing:
It's more than an academic exercise. I've been citing it as my small company discusses whether to reopen our local office. (There's no business need to do so. Our office can operate entirely remotely -- and has been for several weeks now.)
I'm also trying present the data in a meaningful way -- relative to testing and reopening guidelines. If you're frustrated by local reporting, I'd encourage you to do some something similar for your region.
When I do see or hear numbers pop up in local media, it's often offered without meaningful information about larger trends and lends itself to the same horserace/it's all sports mentality that afflicts political coverage.
I put together my own spreadsheet based on my local health agency's data to try to get a more objective sense of how things are really progressing:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSxCDL6xIQll...
It's more than an academic exercise. I've been citing it as my small company discusses whether to reopen our local office. (There's no business need to do so. Our office can operate entirely remotely -- and has been for several weeks now.)
I'm also trying present the data in a meaningful way -- relative to testing and reopening guidelines. If you're frustrated by local reporting, I'd encourage you to do some something similar for your region.