All the "Logarithm scale" thing is just the rate of change in the number in this case
I know what it is. It's bullshit. Yeah, that's my opinion and yes, I know you disagree. That doesn't mean you have to feel offended. It's bullshit.
There were 7,468 new cases in New York in the last 24 hours. The 24 hour period before that saw 6,337 new cases. Follow this for a moment because this is where things turn into bullshit (yes my fucking opinion, GD) if you go to the trouble first of verifying the numbers I just told you, then look for the numbers of new cases from mid march, when it was dozens of new cases per day, you will see that on a logarithmic graph, the growth rate will look exactly the same when it was dozens of new cases as it does now that there are thousands of new cases per day.
I told this to someone else who argued the science with me. Please, assume that I understand the advanced mathematics because I am a highly educated professional who lives by numbers very passionately dedicated to life science. It's not to say I can't be wrong, but you can assume I know what the words mean that I am using.
Now, that case growth in NYC, if you look at it logarithmically, is 16%. It's astronomical. It's anything but flat. If we're EXTREMELY fortunate, it will flatten now. Then, for several days (Hopefully not for weeks) there will be 7500 new cases, every single day. Then, there will be a slight decrease but still thousands of new cases per day, and if we're extremely lucky, it will decrease at the same rate that it increased for the last few weeks. The chances of it being that lucky are dismally low and I could get into that, in fact I'd love to. For now, we can agree that at best, there will be thousands of new cases, everyday, for weeks. That's what "flatten the curve" means. That only applies to a logarithmic graph. Looking at it in a linear graph, it's an increase of total cases by more than 6% in two days, suggesting a doubling time barely better than global average.
What they don't talk about much, but which I assure you is a part of this strategy, is the "pumping of the breaks". Meaning they will try to loosen the lockdowns enough to get some economic output, but then reapply the lockdowns. I'll try to find some more info on that. It's bleak as fuck.
All indications are that we will have to continue like this until there is a vaccine, 16 months from now while the economy is crushed. The point of "flattening the curve" is to not exceed the capacity of the healthcare system. So there's also a baseline which can go up and down based on how we equip that healthcare system. They want to keep that line above the apex of the curve.
If the curve continues to rise at the current rate, just in NYC, it will be 15k new cases per day, in a week (again, a hopeful estimate) and then we will look back on today, when it was just shy of half that as I wish that was the growth rate. That baseline is going to go down everytime a nurse or doctor dies.
It would take less then that amount of time to implement a system like the one in South Korea.