The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the American people. As of the end of March 2022, the U.S. had reported around 80 million cases of COVID-19, with over 980,000 reported deaths. The pandemic has also been a huge blow to the economy; COVID-19 lockdowns caused significant supply chain...
The Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) maintains a collection of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which collects and analyzes data from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on epidemiology and public health. Each issue of the MMWR is packed with raw and analyzed public health data and...
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of nearly one million Americans, and has created economic losses of more than $16 trillion. Despite many challenges, a safe and effective vaccine was developed in less than a year and new treatments and diagnostics have been created. Although science and technology have...
Today, the White House released the National COVID-19 [Coronavirus Disease 2019] Preparedness Plan. This new plan “lays out the roadmap to help us fight COVID-19 in the future as we begin to get back to our more normal routines. We look to a future when Americans no longer fear lockdowns, shutdowns,...
Six months of monitoring Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine discussions online culminated in The Virality Project’s (VP) recent release of their capstone report: Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative Dynamics Around COVID-19 Vaccines. The document provides a detailed analysis of prominent narratives that emerged during the vaccine rollout, discussing their scope,...
The State of California, via their website California for All, has released the new report, “California SMARTER: The Next Phase of California’s COVID-19 Response.” “SMARTER” stands for “Shots, Masks, Awareness, Readiness, Testing, Education and Rx (prescriptions and treatments).” The goals for each of these metrics are: Shots: Capacity to administer...
This morning my children were rolling their eyes at me when I asked them for the umpteenth time to not throw their baggies in the trash after lunch. My oldest declared, “Mom, washing and re-using one baggy is not going to change the world.” My 11 year-old added, “The sun...
The Center for Global Development (CGD) published a working paper that reviews the obstacles to developing vaccines and delivering vaccinations, including against COVID-19, in a historical perspective. In COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Rollout in Historical Perspective, authors Amanda Glassman, Charles Kenny, and George Yang review a subset of the steps...
The World Economic Forum has released Global Risks Report 2022. This 17th edition of the Global Risks Report identifies conflicting trajectories between countries and the risks they pose on individuals, governments, and businesses. COVID-19 continues into 2022 as a critical threat to public health and global economics- “Risks to economic...
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), founded in 2006, investigates and responds to the rise of polarization and extremism around the world. This paper focuses on the development of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and the resulting violent consequences of these threats, with concentrated focus on the role that right-wing extremism plays...
