Wednesday, April 08, 2020

Our Wednesday Pick....COVID-19 In British Columbia, By The Numbers.


AllTheDataAre
HisVille


In case you haven't seen it, the CBC, Lotuslandian division, is keeping running charts of the (mostly) BC Centre For Disease Control-reported numbers on various COVID-19 parameters.

The chart above shows the overall picture, which many folks are commenting on.

However, it is the chart below, regardless unshown co-morbidities and differences in disease progress, that reinforces age-related risk despite those very loud anecdotal stories to the contrary in various and sundry news media:



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So.

Who is doing all this data bashing for the MoCo?

Is it a big group with massive big data resources?

Well, actually, no.

It's all the work of one guy, Justin McElroy, who normally reports on all things municipal affairs. He also loves to amass, synthesize, analyze, review and present all data of all kinds that includes local brewery rankings.

And, in case you didn't know it (which I sure as heckfire didn't), his life story is an inspiring one.

He wrote about that story last week in recognition of 'Autism AwarenessDay'.

Here's Mr. McElroy's lede, but we highly recommend you read the whole piece:

I struggle with eye contact, have a flat, slightly stilted way of speaking, and walk with a gait.

I love learning about relatively minor things in great detail, love telling people about those things, and can get bored quickly on subjects that don’t interest me.

Routines or having items in a specific order give me calm. Introducing new things into my life, or being thrust in a large crowd where I don’t know anybody, gives me anxiety.

I have strengths and weaknesses like everyone else, but my strengths are very strong and my weaknesses create real challenges.

Putting together a detailed report with charts and graphs showing whether a government has completed every single promise in their election platform is straightforward for me. Cooking dinner is not.

All of those things have been true in my life as long as I can remember. For much of it, I mostly considered them a constellation of little quirks that made me unique, in a sometimes frustrating but mostly fun way.

Of course — as you probably figured by this point — there’s a little more to it than that.

World Autism Awareness Day, even in a moment as strange as the one we’re all living through, is an opportunity for everyone to learn more of a condition that millions have, but is hard to fully understand because of how multifaceted and complex it can be...




OK?



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And just in case anybody was wondering, Bigger E and me (sorry Mrs. Griffiths!) have been playing Mr. Prine's 'Angel from Montgomery' recently....Might be time to do a little recording...


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laila has some questions about numbers...
Does Justin's work help?

https://lailayuile.com/2020/04/06/questions-i-have-on-covid-19-other-reported-deaths-and-bc-cdc-stats/

RossK said...

Anon-Above--

Laila has very legitimate questions about process. Justin is only reporting outcomes which, of course, would change if processes change.

Thanks.

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Keith said...

Justin is a perfect example of why everyone is an important part of our society.

Click on the link to Justin's post, it's required reading.

RossK said...

Thanks Keith - I heartily agree!


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