Democratizing Our Data: Covid-19 Impacts on Black and Brown Businesses

The economic impact of Covid-19 on small businesses is unprecedented. Between February and April of 2020, 22% of small businesses disappeared. The number of active white business owners dropped to 17%. In comparison, the number of Black business owners dropped by 41% and Latinx business owners decreased by 32% (Fairlie 2020). This data highlights the disproportionate impacts the pandemic has …

CovidGram: Vaccine Effectiveness and Safety – December 25, 2020

FRONT PAGE  Vaccination effectiveness. What percentage of the U.S. population will have to get vaccinated to have an impact on the spread of the pandemic? Herd immunity is an end stage of a pandemic when enough of a population has developed immunity to protect the rest of the population that is not yet immune. Herd immunity stops the spread …

CovidGram: Contact tracing app, mask recommendation – November 20, 2020

a Covid news digest for the period October 24 – November 20, 2020                                FINAL EDITION   FRONT PAGE CovidGram is back now after a few weeks off. On the other hand, far from taking a break, the pandemic has only intensified. This issue reviews several new Covid-related technologies, but as a general rule, CovidGram does not endorse any …

CovidGram: Testing and aerosol transmission – August 14, 2020

I. Testing  What are the barriers preventing better testing in the U.S.? How can the U.S. get faster accurate testing results? How widespread is contact tracing? Is the reason for paper tests’ low accuracy of about 50% sensitivity the quantitative threshold of virus units it can detect, or is there a more qualitative factor? What kind of testing have model …