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Some epidemiologists object to using a waves-based image when talking about COVID-19. It seems the main objection is the idea that you actually vanquish the first wave before the second one is upon us. One suggested that a house fire would be a better analogy. When it starts to die down, if you don't get rid of all the smouldering embers it will flare up again.
Almost any metaphor or analogy we come up with is going to have its limitations, but it can still offer a useful shorthand for explaining a complex issue in slightly less complex terms.
Maybe it's more like labour pains? I mean, they get more and more intense and closer and closer together until the end of the pregnancy when baby or fetus is born (and a vaccine is available?) Then it's over until the next time (The next virus? The end of the immunity period?). If there is a next time.
The "contractions" seem to be more in expansion mode at the moment, with the R-value hovering somewhere around 1.4. It's worrisome - we're all in a kind of suspended animation, not knowing how everything will play out.
I'm not sure if our politicians are doing all the right things at the moment but I do like the approach of our local public health officials, stressing the importance of the decisions and choices we make as individuals and families as we strive to hold the virus at bay.
With that in mind, I'm thinking of getting a copy of a book by Cass Sunstein, who was on Quirks and Quarks today:
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=too%20much%20information%20understanding%20what%20you%20don't%20want%20to%20know#internal=1
Almost any metaphor or analogy we come up with is going to have its limitations, but it can still offer a useful shorthand for explaining a complex issue in slightly less complex terms.
Maybe it's more like labour pains? I mean, they get more and more intense and closer and closer together until the end of the pregnancy when baby or fetus is born (and a vaccine is available?) Then it's over until the next time (The next virus? The end of the immunity period?). If there is a next time.
The "contractions" seem to be more in expansion mode at the moment, with the R-value hovering somewhere around 1.4. It's worrisome - we're all in a kind of suspended animation, not knowing how everything will play out.
I'm not sure if our politicians are doing all the right things at the moment but I do like the approach of our local public health officials, stressing the importance of the decisions and choices we make as individuals and families as we strive to hold the virus at bay.
With that in mind, I'm thinking of getting a copy of a book by Cass Sunstein, who was on Quirks and Quarks today:
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=too%20much%20information%20understanding%20what%20you%20don't%20want%20to%20know#internal=1
