For Everyone Else
In a Channel 4 clip, Hugh Montgomery does some back-of-the-napkin math contrasting the normal flu against the coronavirus.
“If you are irresponsible enough to think that you don’t mind if you get the flu, remember it’s not about you – it’s about everybody else.”
Intensive care specialist Professor Hugh Montgomery explains why this coronavirus is different from the ordinary flu. pic.twitter.com/h9sQorHQUv
— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) March 22, 2020
Montgomery assumes that on average, someone infected by the coronavirus infects 3 others and that someone with the normal flu infects 1.3 to 1.4 others. There’s still more to find out about that 3x figure, but the main point — that staying at home right now is for the good of everyone — still holds.
Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts.
Join NowMembership
Learn the process of making, designing, and exploring data graphics. Your support goes directly to FlowingData, an independently run site.
What You Get
- Instant access to tutorials on how to make and design data graphics
- Source code and files to use with your own data
- In-depth courses on how to make great charts
- Hand-picked links to tools and resources
- Members-only newsletter
