I noticed something interesting on the Reuters map of Covid-19 cases [0]. The map uses calibrated dots for each county that has reported a positive Covid-19 case. Some reports have not made it to the map and the NYC numbers haven't been updated since yesterday morning but the map is still informative.

I noticed a strong correlation between counties with reported infections and the route of interstate highways.

Take Texas, where I live - From Laredo all the way to DFW there are counties reporting outbreaks. Indeed, one can trace I-35 all the way across Oklahoma, Kansas, and on to Minnesota by the fairly regularly spaced county reports.

You can also trace the route of I-10 from San Antonio to Houston and all the way along the Gulf Coast to Florida. I-10 to the west of San Antonio crosses a lot of rural area and then the Permian Basin where all the oil and gas production activity is occurring. There are no reported outbreaks there yet. The Lubbock County cases north of the route of I-20 appeared yesterday. I think the blank spot in the Permian Basin area exists because anyone who has a job out there today will go to work if they still have a job whether they are sick or not. Many of the people working there are young and healthy too. I do expect to see cases pop up there over the next few days since spring breakers from the schools and colleges will be passing through or returning home from affected areas.

No matter where you look on the map, you can correlate counties affected with well-traveled highways and interstates.

I have been watching this map for days and it has been interesting. It is almost as if those people who became worried about Covid-19 elected to drive instead of fly and some of them were already infected or possibly that some people infected on a flight left the airports and headed home. As they traveled they were dispensing gasoline, grabbing burgers or burritos or chicken sandwiches, making a pit stop or just stretching their legs.

How does that tie into this article?

Since an infected person who doesn't know that they are infected will grab door handles, push buttons on ATMs and gas pump card readers, pump gas, open and close cooler doors to get refreshments, or handle cup lids after they dispense their drinks it is unlikely that all the transmission points could have been effectively sanitized especially since a lot of this travel probably occurred before officials were prepared to warn people about Covid-19.

If copper plating had been used for door handles, countertops, etc then some of this easy transmission could've prevented before it had a chance to start. Hospitals certainly have a well-documented history of being a great place to get more than you bargained for but the main threat to the average person appears to involve simply going on about your business and inadvertently coming into contact with something that an infected person touched.

Right now, we get to see what unchecked spread looks like when you have unrestricted travel.

I picture interstate truckers, spring breakers, business travelers who elected to rent a car and drive instead of flying as being significant vectors. The spacing of the counties in many cases is the spacing that one would see if a single infected traveler stopped every hour and a half for fuel or bathroom break.

Just something I noticed. What do y'all think?
[0] https://www.reuters.com/