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And if you’re more interested in my reporting than Taylor Swift takes (tough but fair), here’s what I’ve been working on: COVID-19 Is Filling Up Hospitals In Small Cities https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/895152258/data-analysis-covid-19-is-filling-up-hospitals-in-small-cities?refresh=true
2/ We used @ashishkjha’s analysis of hospital bed capacity from WAY BACK in March to get an update on where hospitals have the highest number of cases per bed. https://globalepidemics.org/hospital-capacity/
3/ In addition to the obvious (Phoenix, Miami), there were some places on there that aren’t in the news every day. Boise. SW Louisiana. Yakima, Wash.
4/ So this ended up being a case of not just presenting the data, but also using it to direct our reporting. We tapped into the NPR network to work with reporters on the ground in each of those places.
5/ Each of them filed a standalone piece for Morning Edition/ATC, then we did a group chat about this with @NPRinskeep on ME yesterday. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/896088067/as-coronavirus-cases-surge-npr-examines-hospital-capacity
6/ The upshot of what we found is that once you get out of the major cities, it takes much less to overwhelm hospitals. Even if they can transfer patients out (as all these places have had to do), that on its own likely isn’t sustainable.
7/ Yakima, Wash., provided a case study in somewhere that was overwhelmed and made a concerted effort to get its cases down through an aggressive mask campaign. And it seems like it worked, for now. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/895152258/data-analysis-covid-19-is-filling-up-hospitals-in-small-cities?refresh=true
8/ Big thanks to the reporters and editors on this project. This is a story I’ve been wanting to do since March but haven’t quite figured out the right way. All these folks made it happen @bruceauster @GerryAHolmes @rosiewestwood @WStoneReports @racheld_cohen @Jingnan_Huo
