Standing on the landing with the war

In my next life, I should be a statistician. Once I get going on tables and charts of data, I can't stop. Unfortunately, these days the most interesting stats are coming not from the world of sports, but from the state health authorities. Lucky us.

And the numbers tell a wicked tale: June has not been a good month for Oregon or for Portland when it comes to the pandemic.

As of first thing this morning, there were 185 people in Oregon hospitals with Covid. That's the highest total since May 6. There were 59 Covid patients in intensive care units in the state. That's the highest total since April 30 – roughly eight weeks ago.

In the Portland metro area, the daily new-case numbers are getting scary. Multnomah County is getting about 42 new cases a day on average over the past 10 days. Washington County is up over 27, and Clackamas is at about 16.  While these may not seem like big numbers in absolute terms, the trend lines are pretty discouraging:

You can explain away the jumps, as the Trumpies do, as being caused by increased testing. But whatever the differences between now and a month ago, it's hard to see how Washington County can be at "Phase 2" of "reopening" while Multnomah County is at "Phase 1." It may be time for Washington County to start thinking about "reverting."

I wish more people would.