Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I also find that, on graphs, I prefer to see both axes labeled with the associated units.  Maybe I'm just a weird scientist/engineer like that...

It's just relative. Hospitalizations per 100K.

Wisconsin and Iowa have been open. Illinois has been on lockdown.

Illinois fails.

• Population density of Chicago: 9.8K / sq mi
• Population density of Milwaukee: 6.1K / sq mi
• Percentage of Illinois' population in Chicago: 21%
• Percentage of Wisconsin's population in Milwaukee: 10%
• Total population of Chicago metropolitan area: 9.5M

Our study is to our knowledge the first peer-reviewed publication to investigate the relationship between density and the COVID-19 spread and mortality in the United States, controlling for confounding factors. This is a perfect example of the application of structural equation modeling, as explained in the Conceptual Framework and Research Design section. Our outcome variables are COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths per 10,000 population. We find metropolitan population to be one of the most significant predictors of infection rates, with larger metropolitan areas experiencing higher infection and higher mortality rates. We also find that after controlling for metropolitan population, county density is unrelated to the infection rate and negatively related to the mortality rate, possibly due to greater adherence to social distancing policies and practices in denser areas and better quality of health care.

These findings suggest that connectivity matters more than density in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Large metropolitan areas (and megaregions) with a higher number of counties tightly linked together through economic, social, and commuting relationships are the most vulnerable to the pandemic outbreak. They are more likely to exchange tourists and businesspeople with each other and with other parts of the world, thus increasing the risk of cross-border infections.