Think of all the mountains we have climbed

Here's an interesting story about American mainstream media coverage of Covid. As it turns out, the bleaker the report, the more interest it gets. Little surprise, then, that the news outlets invariably play up the negative, and downplay the positive.

My nonscientific assessment is that social media and blogs are doing the same. 

There's not a lot good to be said about the pandemic, that's for sure. But an unbalanced view, pounding the worst day after day, isn't really serving the truth.

And so maybe now's a good time to revisit the data curves I've been keeping on Covid here in Oregon. I just ran the numbers again last night for another 10-day period. It's clear that infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have all been trending downward.

Here are the new-case charts for the three Oregon counties around Portland:

Because new-case numbers are subject to the vagaries of testing frequency, I've always found hospitalizations, intensive care patients, and deaths more meaningful. Here they are:

So as we justifiably kvetch about bad immunization scheduling and even worse immunization priorities in Oregon, let's at least acknowledge that the last three months have been way better than the three that went before. We must be doing something right.