[mrsmith]

Yeah, national statistics hide the problem by the influence of dropping rates from the high-population hot spots.
The rest of the US is surging or plateauing- but with low population.
In my rural county the count hasn’t changed since a week ago when they set up drive-in testing and found a couple. They haven’t come back so asymptomatics are not being found. LOL! In fact none have been found.
Testing is still spotty across the country.
(Also, people may be avoiding going to the hospital or doctor from fear of being infected).

Metrics based on deaths have been the best, but they lag by 2 or more weeks what’s actually going on. Hoping other metrics improve.

[amorphous]

Metrics based on deaths have been the best, but they lag by 2 or more weeks what’s actually going on. Hoping other metrics improve.

I've discovered case numbers are actually pretty darn accurate. And only lag about 4 days from actual time someone acquired the virus.

Below are two charts where I have offset the case date by 14 days forward to sync with fatalities. Top chart is for the US, bottom is Italy's numbers. We're twice as worse off as Italy, but Italy is ahead of us in dealing with CV by about two weeks. It's worrisome to me how our numbers seemed to have plateaued. Look how closely case numbers and fatality numbers track - especially in Italy's case. Mismatch in ending US deaths may be due to NY again dumping nursing home deaths into the bucket. Otherwise, US numbers may have tracked as well as Italy's.

Case numbers are a good indicator of how we're doing. Fatality numbers are an even better indicator, and the fastest indicator of effective treatments and cures.