Preface

Like a lot of people, I have seen great data analysis of the COVID pandemic on the internet. Johns Hopkins University has an elaborate dashboard with global, national, and state-level data. JHU’s chart of daily cases for CT is interesting as the trend is similar to what I have seen in the graphs I generated for Redding, Connecticut (where I live).

The State of Connecticut has a decent daily COVID data report, and pubishes many datasets, but the state does not include town-level trend data that I wanted to see. The New York Times has some incredible analysis and reporting on the pandemic, if you click just one of the links on this site, I recommend that one.

I wanted to see some specific metrics and charts for where I live, in Redding, CT, similar to what the New York Times is doing at a State and County level, but could not find this type of analysis for individual towns.

I decided to generate the charts myself, and then decided to share here. I would charitably characterize these efforts as a draft and work-in-progress, but I do believe that calculations and data manipulation are accurate. I expect to add more charts and tables, and engage in endless wordsmithing and editing in the future.

I recommend reading Chapter 1 “Introduction” (about 175 words) once. These analyses will be updated on weekdays (The State Of Connecticut publishes COVID datasets on weekdays) and readers will (hopefully) return for the latest information, but this Introduction will likely not be updated.

Chapter 2 “Data” will likely not be interesting to most people because it is about getting the data, and preparing it for analysis. Chapter 2 Data includes code, because that chapter documents gathtering the raw data, and how it is manipulated. Code is not shown in Chapter 3 to improve readability, and because that is merely displaying the data gathered in Chapter 2.

Chapter 3, imaginatively titled “Redding” is the result of the work in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 will continue to grow: More charts and analysis will be added, but I wanted to publish this now regardless.

The Appendix will include ad hoc or ancillary information and longer form footnotes to the main content.