Nine areas of data we need to manage the pandemic
Will we ever get control of this pandemic? We can, but better data will go a long way in helping us get there. Here are nine areas where I’d like to see improvement.
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Unpacking U.S. data gaps and lack of public health action with Jason Salemi
Last week, I had a new story published at FiveThirtyEight about the challenges a new CDC forecasting center is facing. Here’s one of the interviews I did for that piece, with epidemiologist Jason Salemi.
Read MoreWe need more data on who’s getting Paxlovid
Last week, I shared a new page from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reporting statistics on COVID-19 therapeutic distribution in the U.S. The new dataset is a helpful step, but it falls far short of the information we actually need to examine who has access to COVID-19 treatments (particularly Paxlovid) and address potential health equity issues.
Read MoreInterpreting limited data in our undercounted surge
There’s no sugarcoating it: we are in an extremely confusing and frustrating phase of the pandemic. We see the rising (yet undercounted) case numbers, we hear from friends and family members who have recently tested positive. And yet the CDC’s official COVID-19 guidance is still based on a mostly-green map, while local leaders refuse to reinstate mask mandates or other safety measures.
Read MoreThe “one million deaths” milestone fails to capture the pandemic’s true toll
This week, many headlines declared that the U.S. has reached one million COVID-19 deaths. While a major milestone, this number is actually far below the full impact of the pandemic; looking at excess deaths and demographic breakdowns allows us to get closer.
Read MoreSeroprevalence, incomplete data in the wake of the Omicron wave
More than half of Americans have some antibodies from a recent coronavirus infection, according to a new CDC report. The study was published Tuesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), accompanied by a press conference and other fanfare. To me, this report (and its publicity) reflects the CDC’s current lack of urgency around addressing the pandemic and its continued impacts.
Read MoreCDC launches new pandemic forecasting center
This week, the CDC introduced a new team focused on modeling infectious diseases, called the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (or CFA). The agency aims to hire about 100 scientists and communicators for the center; they’ll currently focus on COVID-19, but will expand to other diseases in the future.
Read MoreNew CDC mortality data release from the Documenting COVID-19 project
The Documenting COVID-19 project recently released a GitHub data repository that provides county-level CDC mortality data from 2020 and 2021. We’re hoping other reporters will use it to investigate deaths during the pandemic in their regions.
Read MoreThe US still doesn’t have the data we need to make informed decisions on booster shots
Last fall, I wrote that the U.S. did not have the data we needed to make informed decisions about booster shots. Several months later, we still don’t have the data we need, as questions about a potential BA.2 wave and other future variants abound. Discussions at a recent FDA advisory committee meeting made these data gaps clear.
Read MoreAll the U.S.’s COVID-19 metrics are flawed
This week, I had a big retrospective story published at FiveThirtyEight: I looked back at the major metrics that the U.S. has used to track COVID-19 over the past two years—and how our country’s fractured public health system hindered our use of each one.
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