In order to see if Michigan is flattening the curve, you need to pay attention to the daily number of new cases, not the total number of cases. You have likely heard talk in the news of “exponential growth,” which means not just that total cases are going up, but that total cases are growing at an increasing rate. Or, as University of Michigan Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy Neil Mehta explains it:”A nice analogy is how money grows in a fixed interest-earning savings account – that’s exponential growth. Just like the interest rate could be high or low, ‘exponential’ growth of an infection could still be considered fast or slow growth.”

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