Great news, everybody! New Jersey has flattened the COVID19 curve! Just ask Politico:
New Jersey went from being one of the country’s worst #Covid19 hot spots to a model of how to flatten the curve https://t.co/OYwtOvu4wx
— POLITICO (@politico) August 6, 2020
We should all be more like New Jersey, everyone:
Pretty striking side by side (via @kerpen and @Hold2LLC) pic.twitter.com/rEXNZ1eEtk
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) August 6, 2020
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 6, 2020
There is an entire region of the right hand graph where NJ is declining while AZ is rising. But that doesn't mean NJ is doing better than AZ during that time period.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) August 6, 2020
States like NJ and NY that the media praises are literally the red line in this graph, while states the media is crucifying for "doing it wrong" are the blue. pic.twitter.com/xlWZkOxQdQ
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) August 6, 2020
“Flatten” is a subjective term, when you think about it.
"Flatten the curve" now means the opposite of what it meant in March. https://t.co/ntRGzjXeXM
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) August 6, 2020
Well, you know. Things change.
Why does no one remember what "flatten the curve" means? New Jersey is the red curve. It's nowhere near flat. pic.twitter.com/dhBR7s45C9
— Yesh Ginsburg (@yesh222) August 6, 2020
To remember you have to know what it means in the first place. People still seem to think curves work by making every value 0 as fast as possible.
— James Landrum (@ThymeCypher) August 6, 2020
This sentence contradicts itself. To flatten the curve states were supposed to reduce deaths up front spreading them out over a longer period of time. New Jersey literally did the opposite, killing off all the vulnerable up front with the highest death toll per capita in the U.S.
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) August 6, 2020
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Well, if you’re gonna get technical about it:
Does it count as flattening the curve if a lot of people had to die first?
Flattening the curve by letting everyone susceptible to this virus die. pic.twitter.com/zOLfjoVzTj
— Johm (@JohmBoFlavin) August 6, 2020
They did a fantastic job killing all of their elderly
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) August 6, 2020
That tends to happen when many of the vulnerable population die. See NY.
— Janice ???? (@jannyfayray) August 6, 2020
The state with the most deaths per capita flattened the curve and should serve as an example?!
Of what? Killing off the vulnerable early so there’s no one left to die?
— Mortality, Hsptlztns & Nursing Homes (@txsalth2o) August 6, 2020
That’s not how this works, Politico. That’s not how any of this works.
NEW JERSEY NEVER FLATTENED THE CURVE.
Just like New York, anyone that says this does not understand the science at all, and should be completely ignored. https://t.co/D5QhQsD38c
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) August 6, 2020
What makes Politico’s take extra-weird is that their article acknowledges that New Jersey had — and continues to have — issues when it comes to dealing with COVID19:
New Jersey, where 16,000 residents are believed to have died from Covid-19 since March, is serving as a test case of whether any state can really reopen safely. The experience could be a harbinger for states like New York and Connecticut that also clamped down early.
By Monday, spiking case totals forced New Jersey to scale back its economic reopening and officials worry that, without the public’s cooperation, things will only get worse.
…
Since starting to open back up in May, New Jersey kept its cases low — even as the virus raged across the Sun Belt — but that’s changed in recent weeks. Daily new cases went from 289 to about 500 during the month of July. Data suggests the bulk of the cases are in the southern part of the state, by the Jersey Shore, while the northern counties adjacent to New York that were hard hit at the start of the pandemic remain fairly quiet.
How on earth could anyone refer to New Jersey as “a model of how to flatten the curve” in light of what’s actually happened in New Jersey?
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