đź’” Disheartening news: A new study shows that COVID-19 raises risk of cardiovascular disease for at least a year after infection.
Data and Metrics Long COVID
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A recent large study of U.S. Veterans found that the risk of having a heart attack, stroke and a long list of other cardiovascular events was higher for those who had COVID-19 the year prior compared to those who didn’t. The risk was highest for those who had been admitted to the hospital or ICU Read more…
February 10, 2022
In the US, “milder” Omicron is killing more people per day than the worst day of the Delta surge.
Data and Metrics
Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD
Nerdy Girl contributor Dr. Kristen Panthagani (You Can Know Things) explains why, and explores how the word “mild” has been a major source of confusion during the omicron wave. Read here. Link to Original FB Post
February 3, 2022
Q: If 50% of COVID hospitalizations are among the vaccinated, does that mean the vaccines aren’t working?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy Vaccines
Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD
A: No. This metric sounds useful, but it can’t tell us anything about vaccine effectiveness. Since the roll-out of COVID vaccinations, many headlines have reported the percent of COVID hospitalizations and deaths who were vaccinated, trying to convey how well the vaccines are working. ‘Only 1% of COVID hospitalizations are vaccinated people’ sounds encouraging, doesn’t Read more…
January 27, 2022
Are cases peaking? That means it’s all downhill from here, right?
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sort of…. Remember that even if cases come down as quickly as they rise, there will be as many cases *after* the peak as before (think area under the curve!). ➡️ And if the downward slope is *slower* than the rise, we will see *more* cases during the decline from a surge. One potential Read more…
January 13, 2022
POLITE POTTY TALK
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
Hopeful news from đź’© data Omicron stinks big time. But there’s hope on the horizon, popping up in the most unexpected of places – our collective poop. Tracking đź’© – aka “wastewater surveillance” – is a proven way to predict the overall burden of infection in a community. Happily, đź’© trends are ⬇️ nationwide. It Read more…
December 16, 2021
POSTCARDS FROM THE UK: Buckle up America (and everywhere else).
COVID Variants Data and Metrics Infection and Spread
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
October 18, 2021
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A recent large study of U.S. Veterans found that the risk of having a heart attack, stroke and a long list of other cardiovascular events was higher for those who had COVID-19 the year prior compared to those who didn’t. The risk was highest for those who had been admitted to the hospital or ICU Read more…
In the US, “milder” Omicron is killing more people per day than the worst day of the Delta surge.
Data and Metrics
Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD
Nerdy Girl contributor Dr. Kristen Panthagani (You Can Know Things) explains why, and explores how the word “mild” has been a major source of confusion during the omicron wave. Read here. Link to Original FB Post
February 3, 2022
Q: If 50% of COVID hospitalizations are among the vaccinated, does that mean the vaccines aren’t working?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy Vaccines
Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD
A: No. This metric sounds useful, but it can’t tell us anything about vaccine effectiveness. Since the roll-out of COVID vaccinations, many headlines have reported the percent of COVID hospitalizations and deaths who were vaccinated, trying to convey how well the vaccines are working. ‘Only 1% of COVID hospitalizations are vaccinated people’ sounds encouraging, doesn’t Read more…
January 27, 2022
Are cases peaking? That means it’s all downhill from here, right?
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sort of…. Remember that even if cases come down as quickly as they rise, there will be as many cases *after* the peak as before (think area under the curve!). ➡️ And if the downward slope is *slower* than the rise, we will see *more* cases during the decline from a surge. One potential Read more…
January 13, 2022
POLITE POTTY TALK
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
Hopeful news from đź’© data Omicron stinks big time. But there’s hope on the horizon, popping up in the most unexpected of places – our collective poop. Tracking đź’© – aka “wastewater surveillance” – is a proven way to predict the overall burden of infection in a community. Happily, đź’© trends are ⬇️ nationwide. It Read more…
December 16, 2021
POSTCARDS FROM THE UK: Buckle up America (and everywhere else).
COVID Variants Data and Metrics Infection and Spread
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
October 18, 2021
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
Nerdy Girl contributor Dr. Kristen Panthagani (You Can Know Things) explains why, and explores how the word “mild” has been a major source of confusion during the omicron wave. Read here. Link to Original FB Post
Q: If 50% of COVID hospitalizations are among the vaccinated, does that mean the vaccines aren’t working?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy Vaccines
Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD
A: No. This metric sounds useful, but it can’t tell us anything about vaccine effectiveness. Since the roll-out of COVID vaccinations, many headlines have reported the percent of COVID hospitalizations and deaths who were vaccinated, trying to convey how well the vaccines are working. ‘Only 1% of COVID hospitalizations are vaccinated people’ sounds encouraging, doesn’t Read more…
January 27, 2022
Are cases peaking? That means it’s all downhill from here, right?
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sort of…. Remember that even if cases come down as quickly as they rise, there will be as many cases *after* the peak as before (think area under the curve!). ➡️ And if the downward slope is *slower* than the rise, we will see *more* cases during the decline from a surge. One potential Read more…
January 13, 2022
POLITE POTTY TALK
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
Hopeful news from đź’© data Omicron stinks big time. But there’s hope on the horizon, popping up in the most unexpected of places – our collective poop. Tracking đź’© – aka “wastewater surveillance” – is a proven way to predict the overall burden of infection in a community. Happily, đź’© trends are ⬇️ nationwide. It Read more…
December 16, 2021
POSTCARDS FROM THE UK: Buckle up America (and everywhere else).
COVID Variants Data and Metrics Infection and Spread
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
October 18, 2021
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A: No. This metric sounds useful, but it can’t tell us anything about vaccine effectiveness. Since the roll-out of COVID vaccinations, many headlines have reported the percent of COVID hospitalizations and deaths who were vaccinated, trying to convey how well the vaccines are working. ‘Only 1% of COVID hospitalizations are vaccinated people’ sounds encouraging, doesn’t Read more…
Are cases peaking? That means it’s all downhill from here, right?
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sort of…. Remember that even if cases come down as quickly as they rise, there will be as many cases *after* the peak as before (think area under the curve!). ➡️ And if the downward slope is *slower* than the rise, we will see *more* cases during the decline from a surge. One potential Read more…
January 13, 2022
POLITE POTTY TALK
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
Hopeful news from đź’© data Omicron stinks big time. But there’s hope on the horizon, popping up in the most unexpected of places – our collective poop. Tracking đź’© – aka “wastewater surveillance” – is a proven way to predict the overall burden of infection in a community. Happily, đź’© trends are ⬇️ nationwide. It Read more…
December 16, 2021
POSTCARDS FROM THE UK: Buckle up America (and everywhere else).
COVID Variants Data and Metrics Infection and Spread
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
October 18, 2021
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A: Sort of…. Remember that even if cases come down as quickly as they rise, there will be as many cases *after* the peak as before (think area under the curve!). ➡️ And if the downward slope is *slower* than the rise, we will see *more* cases during the decline from a surge. One potential Read more…
POLITE POTTY TALK
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
Hopeful news from đź’© data Omicron stinks big time. But there’s hope on the horizon, popping up in the most unexpected of places – our collective poop. Tracking đź’© – aka “wastewater surveillance” – is a proven way to predict the overall burden of infection in a community. Happily, đź’© trends are ⬇️ nationwide. It Read more…
December 16, 2021
POSTCARDS FROM THE UK: Buckle up America (and everywhere else).
COVID Variants Data and Metrics Infection and Spread
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
October 18, 2021
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
Hopeful news from đź’© data Omicron stinks big time. But there’s hope on the horizon, popping up in the most unexpected of places – our collective poop. Tracking đź’© – aka “wastewater surveillance” – is a proven way to predict the overall burden of infection in a community. Happily, đź’© trends are ⬇️ nationwide. It Read more…
POSTCARDS FROM THE UK: Buckle up America (and everywhere else).
COVID Variants Data and Metrics Infection and Spread
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
October 18, 2021
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
And by buckle up, I mean BOOST-UP. And take other sensible precautions, especially leading up to the holidays. Nerdy Girl Jenn (🇺🇸 in 🇬🇧 ) writing from not-so-sunny England, home of the strangest shaped epidemic curve ever seen (Figure 1). Delta has been raging here since June and never went away. Omicron has a significant Read more…
COVID-19 cases are way down in the U.S. We’re out of the woods, right?!
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
October 12, 2021
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more Read more…
Is COVID-19 99% survivable?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
October 3, 2021
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Read more…
U.S. Passes 700,000 Official COVID-19 Deaths
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
September 28, 2021
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while Read more…
Are we over-stating COVID-19 mortality?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
September 19, 2021
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in Read more…
Roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19.
Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
September 16, 2021
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For Read more…
ICUs in Critical Condition
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
September 13, 2021
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital Read more…
What is the real COVID-19 death toll? Are we over-counting deaths?
Data and Metrics Data Literacy
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
August 31, 2021
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
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Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents Read more…
What’s going on with the Delta variant in the UK 🇬🇧? I heard cases were falling?
COVID Variants Data and Metrics
Jennifer Beam Dowd, PhD
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
August 17, 2021
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ Read more…
📊 DATA SNAPSHOT: Hospital Strain 📊
Data and Metrics
Lindsey Leininger, PhD MA
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on Read more…
Get a discounted subscriber rate until Sept 11
Please become a Paid Subscriber to our twice-weekly Substack email newsletter. Enjoy a 10% discount on the $50 yearly rate until September 11, 2026.
Be part of the movement to ensure Those Nerdy Girls can continue to be a trusted messenger of health information for all. We need you in order to sustain the work.
