5 April 2021 — 1048 mdt
13 months of pandemic in the Flathead
The Centers for Disease Control now provides for download rudimentary county level data on Covid-19 new cases, tests, and deaths. I downloaded the full data set for Flathead County, and from it constructed this time series plot of the 7-day rolling mean of new CV19 cases in the valley:
First, a note on the data. The CDC does not, insofar as I can determine, make daily data available for download. Instead, it offers the 7-day rolling mean of the daily data. That produces a smoother graph, but deprives the viewer of a sense of how noisy the data are. Both the daily values and a smoothed line should be plotted.
The number of new cases daily peaks around 1 December 2020, approximately two weeks after former Gov. Steve Bullock ordered saloons to limit their hours, and after Bullock tired getting tough with several businesses in the Flathead that allegedly had been flouting the mask mandate and other public health measures. Bullock lost that battle in the court of law, but might have won it in the court of public opinion.
Vaccinations started in late December. As of this morning just under 16 percent of the Flathead’s vaccine eligible population has been vaccinated fully. The vaccinated are mostly health care workers and people over 70, but with more vaccine available, all who want a vaccine should be able to obtain one.
The Flathead County Health Department’s coronavirus website has additional information. Be patient: it’s a bandwidth hog.