The Delta variant (also known as B.1.617.2) was first identified in India earlier this spring. It’s now known to spread more easily than any other variant found so far and evade immunity from a prior COVID-19 infection. It’s now spreading rapidly in the U.S.
Read More
Two weeks ago, a major new COVID-19 data source came on the scene: the Health Equity Tracker, developed by the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. To dig more into this valuable resource, I talked to Josh Zarrabi, senior software engineer at the Satcher Health Leadership.
Read More
On Thursday, the Biden administration made a big (and long-awaited) announcement: the federal government is sending 25 million vaccine doses from America’s stockpile to other countries.25 million doses—or even the 80 million doses that the administration has promised by the end of this month—is a drop in the bucket compared to actual international needs. For example: COVAX needs 1.8 billion doses to vaccinate about half the adult population in low-income countries. COVAX has specifically prioritized 92 low-income nations, representing a total population of 3.8 billion.
Read More
Earlier this month, the CDC made a pretty significant change in how it tracks breakthrough cases. Instead of reporting all cases, the agency is only investigating and collecting data on those cases that result in hospitalizations or deaths. Here’s what this decision means, and why I’m calling it a lazy move.
Read More
In the past couple of weeks, violence in Palestine has shut down hospitals and prevented vaccine deliveries. Unvaccinated people have crowded into shelters in Gaza, while all testing and vaccination efforts have stalled.
Read MoreSince early January, the COVID-19 Data Dispatch has maintained a page of detailed annotations on all the major sources for vaccination data in the U.S. This includes government sources (the CDC, all 50 states, and D.C.), along with a few notable news publications and independent dashboards. The page is now switching to an every-other-week update schedule from every week.
Read MoreFeatured sources for the week of June 13 include vaccine distribution by Congressional districts, fiscal accountability for COVID-19 responses, and risk levels for kids.
Read More
This will be Sarah Braner’s last week writing for the COVID-19 Data Dispatch, so she shared a few words of thanks and reflection.
Read More
After several weeks of sharp declines, new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. now appear to be in a plateau. There are a few factors likely influencing this shift: the aftermath of a reporting lag over Memorial Day weekend, the slow pace of vaccinations, and the rise of the Delta variant.
Read MoreThe Florida public health agency is stalling daily updates to its COVID-19 dashboard, cases, and vaccine reports. Instead, the department will post weekly reports on Fridays, the Miami Herald reports.
Read MoreFeatured sources for the week of June 6 include vaccine incentives, health equity, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails.
Read More
Excess deaths are those deaths that occur above a region’s past baseline. Data scientists calculate the metric by determining the average deaths for a country or region over a period of several years—then comparing this past average to the deaths that occured in the current year. The deaths occurring in the current year above that […]
Read MoreWe finally have a straightforward variant naming system: on May 31, the WHO announced a system using letters of the Greek alphabet. B.1.1.7 (first identified in the U.K. is now Alpha, B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa) is now Beta, and so on.
Read More