For months, I've been checking this county's plague stats at the county's official website:
https://stlcorona.com/resources/covid-19-statistics/I recently noticed how similar the green, death graph numbers look for April-May, compared to Nov.-December. I decided to add up all those daily numbers, and compare the two. It turns out the second wave of deaths was about 16% worse than the first (608 vs 524). While I haven't run the numbers, the rate of positive results (per total number of tests) peaked in April, and shot up again to similar figures in November.
One graph that shows a big difference is the one showing the number of new cases each day, which is much higher for that second period. But of course, that's
known new cases per day. Testing was minimal in that first wave, compared to the second. (Click on the tab for "Results by Date.")
The likely explanation, it seems to me, is that none (or very few) of the measures being taken are making much of a difference. Significantly, at least for me, most stores here weren't enforcing a mask policy until about the first of July. They mostly had one, but they didn't accost you as you came in the door, like many of them do now. Our numbers went up slightly, just before that date. They've gone up much, much, further since. For what that's worth.
