COVID-19’s Exponential Growth with Amy Simpkins

In this episode, host Cristin Downs interviews MuGrid Analytics CEO Amy Simpkins on the exponential growth of COVID-19.

“Seriously, get your head around – it’s going to be awhile. And if it’s less than that while, we’ll all be super duper happy.”

I’ve been personally off the grid due to the death of my father. He was one of my favorite people to walk the earth. A good egg. He went on hospice in December and then passed away in January. While we sat together each evening, with my mother too, we saw reports about a virus in Wuhan which eventually became a global pandemic.

Not quite sure what to do – who really knows right now? – I decided to create a series of resources folks might need to get by right now, and that includes this interview with Amy.

Amy is the CEO of muGrid Analytics, and she and her husband Travis created a data project looking at the exponential growth of COVID-19. You can find their work at humansvsvirus.com. The more we flatten the curve, the more likely we can beat the virus!! (I always see Bill Pullman’s speech in Independence Day in my head at this moment.)

One of the things I’ve noted as I talk to people about this virus is that don’t understand why people freak out when there’s 3, or 7, or even in the case of New York City, 300 cases in your community. Ah, my friend, that is what Amy is here to explain.

IN THIS EPISODE, I EXPLORE:

Why Amy’s the right person to talk to about this
Why Amy’s personally interested in the data around COVID-19
An explanation of some of the terms you’ve been hearing – R naught value and CFR
What COVID-19’s doubling time is
How we can #flattenthecurve