2294: Coronavirus Charts

2020-04-16T09:13:52Z

Zeekay: Minor correction

{{comic
| number = 2294
| date = April 15, 2020
| title = Coronavirus Charts
| image = coronavirus_charts.png
| titletext = Adding data for South Korea but with their cases scaled to match the population of Japan and the land area of Australia, and vice versa.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a poorly constructed graph. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
During the current outbreak of COVID-19, there have been many graphs used by health officials and others to show trends in infection and death rates.

This graph, however, while sharing similarities with actual data and graphs is completely useless. This is due to the bizarre data-points being used, as well as the unhelpful graph axes. The caption of the comic notes as much, perhaps indicating that this comic is intended to satirize the useful, but exceptionally detailed graphs that are currently in use. Some of these graphs have a semilog scale, like this graph - but generally the y-axis is the log scale and the x-axis is not. Sometimes the other graphs compare things of vastly different sizes - as demonstrated by showing both the USA and New York. Sometimes they scale the data to population, as referenced by the mouseover text.

'''Metrics used'''

X-axis:
*Negative test results: Negative [https://covidtracking.com/ test results] would refer to people who were tested for COVID-19, but who do not have the disease (or were not able to confirm having the disease). Larger values for this number indicate that more of the population has been tested.
* per Google search for "COVID": Meanwhile, [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=covid Google search results for "COVID"] are search hits for that word. There is no relation between these two, and furthermore, it does not make sense for this to be graphed in a {{w|logarithmic scale}}.
* It's not clear what data points would allow you to chart one country over several values of x. Cumulative results at different times?

Y-axis:
*[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/worldwide-graphs/#daily-deaths Coronavirus deaths today]: The 24/7 news media spend a lot of time talking about daily numbers and day-over-day trends.
*[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/worldwide-graphs/#total-cases Total cases] one week ago: This is a much larger number than deaths and will completely dominate the sum. Cases one week ago might have some predictive value for deaths today or in the near future, but adding them together double-counts many cases.
*{{w|Per capita}}: This is a measure of the amount per person, and is useful for averaging out numbers based on population size. For example, the United States have the most COVID-19 cases and deaths, but also an higher population than the most other industrialized nations, so using per capita numbers tells a different story.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[A graph is drawn.]
:[A curve labeled "United States" starts about halfway up the vertical axis, rises almost to the top, and then levels off about a third of the way along the horizontal axis.]
:Y-axis label: Coronavirus deaths today plus total cases one week ago per capita
:X-axis label: Negative test results per Google search for "COVID" (log scale)
:Caption: I'm a huge fan of weird graphs, but even I admit some of these coronavirus charts are less than helpful.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]

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2294: Coronavirus Charts