{"id":6824,"date":"2021-07-29T10:36:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T14:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/?p=6824"},"modified":"2021-08-04T19:56:45","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T23:56:45","slug":"kentuckys-daily-new-cases-of-covid-19-on-track-to-reach-2000-by-first-week-of-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/kentuckys-daily-new-cases-of-covid-19-on-track-to-reach-2000-by-first-week-of-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky’s Daily New Cases of Covid-19 On Track to Reach 2000 by First Week of August."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[It Did.]<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yesterdays’s report totaled 1549 new cases of Covid-19. There has been no letup in reported New Cases, Percent Test Positivity, or Hospital and ICU utilization since the first week of July. Unless there are changes in behavior of Kentuckians, there is no reason to expect any change in this exponential trajectory. At this rate new cases are still doubling every 8-10 days. We all should know where that leads!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yesterday I listened to a presentation by the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship program at the National Academy of Medicine of which I am an alumni. The title was “Communicating Science Effectively in the Time of COVID.” The program was well done, but sobering for me. The old scientist that I am works from a basic assumption that the facts will speak for themselves. Thus I spent much time unpacking state and national databases to describe what is happening in this epidemic and using that information to predict potential futures. That approach is obviously insufficient. It’s more complicated than that! Facts must be supplemented by stories. As I no longer take care of individual patients and am not part of the traditional public health apparatus, I have few stories to share. Others are doing that job for us. We need to pay better attention to our audiences. The challenge to act as a community instead of as individuals is great, but in my opinion one that must be faced as we learn to live with this first great plague of the 21st Century that isn’t going away soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data speaking to me today tell me it is going to get a lot worse before we turn the corner again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL<\/p>\n

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