Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Last night, I watched three political science professors from my undergraduate college put on a 90-minute panel discussion about the incoming Biden administration for alumni. The Q&A was the best part. Of all the questions, "What do you tell students about the importance of participation in public service and politics?" was the most striking. The answers boiled down to: A representative democracy only works when informed and rational citizens participate in the mundane, detailed, and necessary tasks across all government levels. It is a good reminder that every municipality, county, and state has boards, commissions, and committees operationalizing regulations and laws. Perhaps we should all strive to be more engaged citizens in 2021.
-----Latest Data---
New cases are decreasing on the F.T. charts for the U.S. and the U.K.
The U.S. is still averaging ~800,000 vaccine doses per day.
All data above is reflective of 7-day rolling averages.
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=casesf
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
Vaccine Tracker
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
-----
Here is another article that quantitates the value of mask-wearing. The data suggests more self-reported mask-wearing plus social distancing lowered the R0 (transmission rates) -- in some instances, below 1. There is a lot more to this article, so I highly recommend you read the discussion section.
https://twitter.com/johnbrownstein/status/1351550891212488709?s=20
Article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30293-4/fulltext
Popular Science reviews data that would imply we have (unsurprisingly) under-diagnosed the prevalence of COVID. It is a good reminder of why we have to keep up with transmission control techniques. Even if we have double the current infections, we are NOWHERE near herd immunity. Of course, the virus is variable, causes a lot of damage, and saturates the healthcare system. Sadly, masks, testing, contact tracing, and isolation are all needed till we get the vaccine maximally distributed.
https://www.popsci.com/story/health/covid-19-spread-immunity-blood-donate/
There was even more discussion about the South African coronavirus variant - 501Y.V2. Again, unclear what all this means clinically yet, but the benchtop data (which I pointed to yesterday) is concerning.
https://twitter.com/juliaoftoronto/status/1351471077919219712?s=10
Dr. Eric Topol reminds us that while we are just recovering from the 4th (Thanksgiving/Christmas) surge, prepare for the B.1.1.7 strain in the coming weeks. What you can do: replace your masks and get vaccinated (as soon as you can).
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1351605355768279041
Infographic of the day: Interactive Insults.
Appreciate this for the magnitude, layout, and interactive features.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-complete-insult-list.html#
----Bonus Round--- Inaugural Address Data
Today feels like a good day to look at past Inaugural addresses—lots of resources to review.
The American Presidency Project from U.C. Santa Barbara has some basic analytics.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/inaugural-addresses
William Henry Harrison's 1841 address wins as the longest and may have hastened his demise within the month.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/inaugural-address-29
The Council on Foreign Relations offers a top-10 and some entertaining commentary.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/inaugural-addresses
Statista offers data on the television viewers for each inauguration from 1969 to 2017.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/250929/us-presidential-inauguration-viewer-numbers/
And, if you are still with me, check out this Quantitative Analysis of U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses. It looks at vocabulary richness (MATTR), thematic concentration (STC), and text activity (Q) with a subanalysis comparing these variables to war and recessions. They found "U.S. presidential inaugural addresses seem to be mostly determined by the individual style of each speaker, but some important circumstances such as war or recession can affect the speech to some extent." I highly recommend the appendix with a breakdown of thematic words by the president.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304825825_Quantitative_Analysis_of_US_Presidential_Inaugural_Addresses
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Last night, I watched three political science professors from my undergraduate college put on a 90-minute panel discussion about the incoming Biden administration for alumni. The Q&A was the best part. Of all the questions, "What do you tell students about the importance of participation in public service and politics?" was the most striking. The answers boiled down to: A representative democracy only works when informed and rational citizens participate in the mundane, detailed, and necessary tasks across all government levels. It is a good reminder that every municipality, county, and state has boards, commissions, and committees operationalizing regulations and laws. Perhaps we should all strive to be more engaged citizens in 2021.
-----Latest Data---
New cases are decreasing on the F.T. charts for the U.S. and the U.K.
The U.S. is still averaging ~800,000 vaccine doses per day.
All data above is reflective of 7-day rolling averages.
Global-View:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938
Nationally:
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usca&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usco&cumulative=0&logScale=0&perMillion=1&values=casesf
Also, look at https://covidtracking.com/data
The U.S. Regionally - N.Y. Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
About the data:
https://covidtracking.com/about-data/visualization-guide is the best resource to understand data visualization and data integrity.
Vaccine Tracker
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
-----
Here is another article that quantitates the value of mask-wearing. The data suggests more self-reported mask-wearing plus social distancing lowered the R0 (transmission rates) -- in some instances, below 1. There is a lot more to this article, so I highly recommend you read the discussion section.
https://twitter.com/johnbrownstein/status/1351550891212488709?s=20
Article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30293-4/fulltext
Popular Science reviews data that would imply we have (unsurprisingly) under-diagnosed the prevalence of COVID. It is a good reminder of why we have to keep up with transmission control techniques. Even if we have double the current infections, we are NOWHERE near herd immunity. Of course, the virus is variable, causes a lot of damage, and saturates the healthcare system. Sadly, masks, testing, contact tracing, and isolation are all needed till we get the vaccine maximally distributed.
https://www.popsci.com/story/health/covid-19-spread-immunity-blood-donate/
There was even more discussion about the South African coronavirus variant - 501Y.V2. Again, unclear what all this means clinically yet, but the benchtop data (which I pointed to yesterday) is concerning.
https://twitter.com/juliaoftoronto/status/1351471077919219712?s=10
Dr. Eric Topol reminds us that while we are just recovering from the 4th (Thanksgiving/Christmas) surge, prepare for the B.1.1.7 strain in the coming weeks. What you can do: replace your masks and get vaccinated (as soon as you can).
https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1351605355768279041
Infographic of the day: Interactive Insults.
Appreciate this for the magnitude, layout, and interactive features.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-complete-insult-list.html#
----Bonus Round--- Inaugural Address Data
Today feels like a good day to look at past Inaugural addresses—lots of resources to review.
The American Presidency Project from U.C. Santa Barbara has some basic analytics.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/inaugural-addresses
William Henry Harrison's 1841 address wins as the longest and may have hastened his demise within the month.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/inaugural-address-29
The Council on Foreign Relations offers a top-10 and some entertaining commentary.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/presidential-documents-archive-guidebook/inaugural-addresses
Statista offers data on the television viewers for each inauguration from 1969 to 2017.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/250929/us-presidential-inauguration-viewer-numbers/
And, if you are still with me, check out this Quantitative Analysis of U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses. It looks at vocabulary richness (MATTR), thematic concentration (STC), and text activity (Q) with a subanalysis comparing these variables to war and recessions. They found "U.S. presidential inaugural addresses seem to be mostly determined by the individual style of each speaker, but some important circumstances such as war or recession can affect the speech to some extent." I highly recommend the appendix with a breakdown of thematic words by the president.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304825825_Quantitative_Analysis_of_US_Presidential_Inaugural_Addresses
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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