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TomaCzar t1_iumttzn wrote

I get it, but it's kind of obvious. My question would be, why the super low lows. What's happening on those days? My first guess was national holidays, but there doesn't seem to be much of a lull during the summer months, if at all, so I don't think it makes much sense to correlate it with days off from school.

Unless it's not just days off from school, but also decreased attendance at work. National holidays would mean time off from school and work (for most) and might account for a steep decline. IDK, just random guessing without the source data.

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davvblack t1_iumvvri wrote

the scale is low enough that that's just random noise. the lows are only 6ish deaths below the median.

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OutOfTheAsh t1_iunm7s3 wrote

> only 6ish deaths below the median.

I think you fail to make this valid point strongly enough. The median for any given date in the sample looks not much more than 15, but that's a cumulative total over a 15 year span. So the median for any unique individual day is ~1, and 1 is the below median minimum.

Other than Halloween, the sliver of not-noise should mostly be around weekends and holidays. As seen with Covid, the number of deaths decline around these times and peak the day after them. A simple matter that hospital administrators and state health board workers are disinclined to work on days off.

This sort of data isn't precise down to date of mortality incident or subsequent hour of death. It's when the report is recorded--generally M-F; 9-5.

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