This question was triggered by the announcement of a lockdown again in Pune city. The lockdown decision must be based on a set of assumption, which I think are the following
1. During the earlier lockdown the rate of spread of the infection was under “control”, by whatever it means.
2. After the partial lifting of the restrictions on 1st of June, the rate of spread increased.
3. The facilities for accommodating patients in need of hospitalization and critical care are saturating. We can no more accommodate more patients.
4. Another lockdown will reduce the number of patients. Now let us see the actual numbers. Plotted below is the time trend in 5 day running average of daily reported cases on a log scale. So far the number of positives is such a tiny fraction of the total population, that the number of susceptibles is not a limiting factor in the dynamics. So the slope of the log transformed data is straightaway an indication of the rate of spread of the infection. It can be seen easily with the Indian data, Maharashtra data as well as Pune data that just before the lockdown was lifted, the slope had started declining due to some reason. In India as well as in Maharashtra the slope remained lower whereas in Pune the slope increased again to match the earlier slope. In no case the slope increased. This means that there is NO evidence at any scale that the rate of transmission increased after lifting the restrictions. So saying that the infection is spreading more rapidly after relaxing the restrictions is either an indication of not understanding numbers, or some deliberate motive to propagate lies.
In support of the theory that the infection is spreading faster after lifting the lockdown, they give the absolute number of patients which is on the rise. But the absolute numbers would have gone up even with the lockdown. Absolute numbers say nothing about the rate of spread. They are bound to go up even with the rates that were present during the lockdown.
I will be surprised if the politicians and administrators do not understand statistics. But I believe there are people from science and medicine advising them. At least they are expected to understand numbers. I know in Pune city there is a group of scientists, advising PMC. I had an impression that at least they understand science. But may be, I have to change my opinion now.
The cause of worry is said to be the increasing number of patients saturating the available beds. Clearly here the absolute number of patients matter, not the rate of spread. But will a lockdown reduce the numbers? Currently there is no evidence that lockdown reduces the rate of transmission. Earlier lockdown experience indicates that it certainly does not result into a negative trend in numbers. But even if we assume that it will reduce the slope, it still cannot bring down the absolute numbers. They will still be growing may be at a slightly reduced rate. At the best, instead of saturating today, the beds will be saturated after 3-4 days. So lockdown is not at all a solution to the saturation problem.
One of the important expected outcomes of the first lockdowns was that we did not have enough facility to handle a large number of patients in the beginning. The breathing period that the first lockdown gave was meant to boost up our infrastructure, create more wards for Covid patients. Many cities in the world did this quite efficiently but did Pune do it? Very early in the pandemic, there were dozens of mathematical models predicting the possible numbers that hospitals may have to accommodate in the coming months. The actual spread of the infection has been much slower than what most models predicted. And even then if we are running short of beds now, it simply reflects on the inability of the administration and their scientific advisers to read numbers. John Allen Paulos wrote a book in 1988 called “Innumeracy”. He uses the word with a meaning parallel to illiteracy. Educated people learn to read, write and understand letters, words and their meanings. But most people don’t seem to understand numbers. They may at the most be able to read and write them. Understanding numbers is a different ball game. This is ok for laymen. But I wonder, is there nobody in Pune who really understands numbers and so can come out and say, NO! Lockdown is not the solution! It is not going to work, because the problem a lockdown can potentially solve, simply does not exist. The rate of spread of the epidemic has not increased by lifting lockdown, so it is not going to come down by imposing it again.
My science, My way 