This post has a lot of math/graph information. Even if you are not usually interested in this, it might be worth looking at some of it.
The Covid-19 growth curve is often characterized as exponential growth. Here is an amazing video that shows exponential growth. You don’t need to follow all the math to be impressed by the animation. I think it deserves an Oscar nomination for that category.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=54XLXg4fYsc&feature=emb_logo
In fact, epidemics are not exponential growth curves. They are Logistic growth curves. But the very early part can be approximated by an exponential curve, as shown in this picture.
Here is a more sophisticated video that explains Logistic growth (be patient, not until about 5:50).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0tIxDvrg
A separate but related topic is “What are these Covid-19 models?” These are mathematical models that try to predict the progress of the virus. A widely used model is the SIR model. It divides the population into 3 groups and uses a series of equations to show the change over time to S the number of susceptible people, I the number of people infected, and R the number of people who have recovered (or died).Here is a picture of the output of this model.
By modelling different policies such as social distancing, you can see if the Infected curve flattens or not.
This next video has a lot more math than the previous ones but you don’t really have to understand differential equations to follow it. You can also skip the math definition part and advance to 13:15 to see an animation of the model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1337&v=k6nLfCbAzgo&feature=emb_logo
