I was pleasantly surprised at how many comments refrained from any political references. I had a small hope that a quantum physics related post would remain unentangled from any trump references. When I read your post, my hopes dropped to their lowest energy state, and my dreams of a politics free comment section collapsed.

Why do children fare better? In our haste to pick a side in the decision to remove the post, we've likely ignored the obvious. It is scientifically Interesting that children do so much better. What is the mechanism for that? We shouldn't dismiss it as self-evident that only 20 children age 5-14 have died nationwide during the pandemic (cdc data as of July 25th). Not 20,000. Not 2,000. Not 200. 20. Nationwide. That's incredible relative to the death rates in older populations. One possible explanation is that children do have some level of immunity conferred by the MMR vaccine that nearly all children in the US receive. Actual science to consider: https://www.researchgate.net/p...

Shall we try a few:
(1) Federalist system leads to different responses. Difficult and controversial choices made on how to quantify pandemic.
(2) Population furious that gunshot victims and alcohol-poisoning deaths included in covid tallies. Lose trust in state officials and push for reopening.
(3) States look to minimize mistakes made early in Covid response by creating data standard for nursing home deaths that they don't use for other deaths.
(4) Someone from the Kaiser Family Foundation makes a quote at the end of this article. Who are they anyway? Read this article and you won't find out...
(5) These states are using ten simple tricks to get their dataset so it can say anything they want
(6) Two journalists found five tricks to mislead readers with data and handwaving...Click here to find out how
(7) Public ill-prepared to handle complex statistical discussion with potentially life and death consequences. News at 11.
(8) Bad state data hides coronavirus threat as Trump pushes reopening

Even bees are using clickbait headlines to generate buzz

Co-founder is an inaccurate description. It should be co-writer, unless...he's actually the co-architect...

I'm sure you meant to use an exclamation point and not a question mark, right!?! There's no need to question the importance of order, especially in the times we live in.

Thanks for the explanation. I had no idea it was that simple. No society should have to put up with views it doesn't like on the internet.

I was replying to the previous poster who said "Actually ... 78,503 tonight. And that's ignoring those who die before they can be tested." I was just pointing out that some states were including suspected cases without testing in their tally. I couldn't find a comprehensive list anywhere of which states are using that methodology.

New York includes people that weren't tested but were suspected to have had it in their tally. When they switched to that method, it increased their tally by 35% or so.

Certainly the result in output comes from some change in input. Do you have other suggestions worth considering? By what metric would you choose to tease out causation?

Well played

What causes people to continually gravitate toward Malthusian ideas?

I'm new here. Is that sarcasm?

That's certainly reasonable to think. Different results always lead one to posit different initial conditions. Important to note other factors that might impact results, such as population density. Sydney Australia has 1,100 people per square mile. London packs in an order of magnitude more with over 11,000 per square mile. Density might be having an effect on the difference between LA and NYC as well. Lots of dissertations to be written on this ordeal. Of course density and genetics are factors that are not mutually exclusive.

Important news for sure in regards to learning more about the disease. I agree in theory that a more contagious specimen would have the potential to create a large number of cases quickly which would be difficult for hospitals to handle. You then state that this particular strain is hitting the US east coast hard. The implication here is that the hospital system in places like NYC was/is overwhelmed. While the death toll is certainly terrible and the emotional impact on all involved is difficult to fathom (i.e. the suicide of an ER doc in NYC), the reports do not back up the implication that patients in NYC were not able to access medical care this causing much higher death levels. ICU beds remained available. More ventilators than were needed were accessible. The naval ship comfort and makeshift hospitals in hotels were not heavily utilized. Perhaps I don't have great sources for my info, but I do know Gov. Cuomo gave at least one presser to that end.