Category: COVID

Categories : COVIDTags :

Three Doses are Needed for Same Protection against Omicron

On By ModernMedia
Syringe injection into the upper arm
Image source: NCI on Unsplash

According to a large study published in The BMJ, mRNA vaccines are highly effective in preventing COVID hospital admissions related to the alpha, delta, and omicron variants. However, three doses are needed to achieve similar protection against omicron that two doses provide against delta and alpha.

The results also show that, although severity of disease among patients admitted to hospital is lower with the omicron versus delta variant, patients with omicron are still at risk of critical illness and death.

In order to guide vaccination policies and development of new vaccines, it is essential to understand COVID variants and vaccine efficacy.

Early studies suggested reduced vaccine effectiveness against infection and hospital admissions for omicron compared with earlier variants, but little is known about the effectiveness of vaccines to prevent the most severe manifestations of COVID, including respiratory failure and death, for patients with infection due to the omicron variant.

To address this, the researchers assessed COVID severity in the alpha, delta, and omicron variants among hospitalised adults and compared the effectiveness of two and three doses of mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) in preventing hospital admissions related to each variant.

Their findings are based on 11 690 adults admitted to 21 hospitals across the United States between March 2021 and January 2022: 5728 cases with COVID and 5962 controls without COVID.

Patients were classified into alpha, delta or omicron based on viral gene sequencing or by the predominant circulating variant at the time of hospital admission.

Vaccine effectiveness was then calculated for each variant and variants’ disease severity was compared with the World Health Organization’s clinical progression scale.

Effectiveness of two doses of an mRNA vaccine to prevent COVID hospital admission was found to be lower for the omicron variant than alpha and delta variants (65%, 85%, and 85%, respectively), whereas three doses were found to achieve 86% effectiveness against the omicron variant, similar to two doses against the alpha and delta variants.

Among unvaccinated adults hospitalised with COVID, the delta variant was associated with the most severe disease, followed by the alpha variant and then the omicron variant.

The omicron variant was, however, associated with substantial critical illness and death, with 15% of patients admitted to hospital with the omicron variant (vaccinated and unvaccinated) progressing to invasive mechanical ventilation, and 7% dying in hospital.

Nevertheless, vaccinated patients hospitalised with COVID had significantly less sever disease than unvaccinated patients across all variants.

As an observational study, cause cannot be established, and some variant misclassification may have occurred. Changes in clinical management during the periods when the alpha, delta, and omicron variants predominated were not accounted for. These could have affected outcomes, the researchers acknowledged.

Nevertheless, this was a large study with rigorous evaluation of vaccination status and of outcomes beyond hospital admission, suggesting that the results are robust.

As such, they say that mRNA vaccines “were associated with strong protection against hospital admissions with COVID due to the alpha, delta, and omicron variants” and that vaccination against COVID including a third dose of an mRNA vaccine, “is critical for protecting populations against COVID-associated morbidity and mortality.”

They concluded: “As the COVID pandemic continues to evolve, routine monitoring of vaccine effectiveness, especially against severe disease, and surveillance programmes to identify viral variants will be essential to inform decisions about booster vaccine policies and vaccine strain updates.”

Source: EurekAlert!

Categories : COVIDTags :

Aspen to Locally Produce COVID Vaccine ‘Aspenovax’ for the African Continent

On By ModernMedia
Syringe withdrawing from vaccine vial
Photo by Mufid Majnun

In a news release, pharma giant Aspen has announced that it has concluded an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to manufacture an Aspen-branded COVID vaccine, Aspenovax, and to make it available throughout Africa.

This follows on from the November 2021 announcement of an agreement of terms between the two companies. This new agreement will expand the existing technical transfer and manufacturing agreements between the companies.

The agreement will grant Aspen’s South African subsidiary the rights to manufacture finished Aspenovax product from drug substance supplied by J&J. It will also make Aspenovax available to markets in Africa through transactions with designated multilateral organisations and with national governments of member states of the African Union.

Under the agreement, Aspen has secured the necessary intellectual property from Johnson & Johnson for production. There is also a good faith undertaking between the companies to expand the agreement to cover any new versions of the drug substance, such as those developed for new variants or a different formulation for administration as a booster.

The agreement will last through to the end of 2026.

Commenting on this agreement, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa said: “This important agreement on sharing know-how and technologies for the production of COVID vaccines is a huge leap forward towards realising our shared vision for medicines and vaccines to be manufactured on the African soil for the African people. Vaccines are our best way out of this pandemic and local production is an essential recipe for our success.”

Stephen Saad, Aspen Group Chief Executive said: “Even with all the support in the world, none of this would be possible without the competence of our teams at Gqeberha. They knew the weight of a continent’s ambitions rested on their shoulders. They persevered and succeeded in becoming a significant supplier within the Johnson & Johnson network. Aspenovax has become a reality due to the confidence placed in their abilities. They are our African heroes.”

Categories : COVID GenderTags :

The Pandemic’s Negative Impact on Women in Academic Medicine

On By ModernMedia
Female scientist in laboratory
Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels

Like women in every other sector of the economy, the COVID pandemic has negatively impacted those working in academic medicine according to a commentary which appears in Nature Medicine.

Co-author Anne B. Curtis, MD, professor at the University at Buffalo, laid out the problem: “During the first year of the pandemic, when schools shut down and went to 100% remote learning, we saw that it affected women disproportionately, having to stay home and teach their children while their research languished.”

Even before the COVID pandemic, women in academic medicine were paid less than men in comparable positions, received lower startup funds for laboratory research and were promoted later.

Additionally, they wrote that, compared to men, women have fewer “conventional markers of achievement” in academia, such as principal investigator positions on research grants. Women write fewer grant applications; they have fewer grant renewals; they get lower funding amounts for initial grants; and are first or last author on fewer papers.

The reasons for these are well known, the authors wrote.

“Society expects women to assume the major portion of the burden for child rearing, and women themselves feel an obligation to put family above their own needs, to the detriment of their own career development,” she said. “There still isn’t the sharing of responsibilities in two-career families to mitigate these problems.”

The paper includes a detailed ‘menu’ of proposed solutions. These include providing financial support to hire technicians for two to three years to carry on lab research while women researchers focus on child care at home, or otherwise supporting child care at home so women can continue their lab research.

The paper also proposes slowing down tenure clocks, delaying the tenure decision by two to three years to make up for lost time while women give birth and care for young children.

In addition to such programs, the list includes a category of solutions termed “cultural,” described as creating the cultural expectation that gender equity is a shared responsibility and incorporating those expectations into bonuses and merit raises of institutional leaders. Also included is the need to engage university and hospital boards of trustees to support gender equity.

Prof Curtis said that the paper aims to highlight the persistence of these gender differences persist and that global phenomena like the pandemic only worsen them.

“As much as we would like to think that gender differences in career development no longer exist, they do, and they adversely affect women more than men,” she said. “Understanding these issues and implementing solutions are the best ways to minimise potentially adverse effects on women’s careers.”

As the pandemic and its associated restrictions ease, Prof Curtis warned, “The situation is improving now that schools are open, but the next pandemic may only be a mutation away.”

Source: Buffalo University

Categories : COVIDTags :

COVID Battle not Over as Many Countries Continue to Struggle

On By ModernMedia
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Two years into the pandemic, and the COVID battle is not over for much of the world, warns the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Many countries lack the capacities to transition to ‘a new normal’: high vaccination coverage, strong healthcare systems or testing capacities. The crisis will not be over until everyone has the same access to these tools, the IFRC says.

Francesco Rocca, IFRC President, said: “’Living with the virus’ is a privilege that many countries and communities around the world cannot enjoy. Ensuring equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments will not only save lives, but will also protect the world against the emergence of new and more dangerous variants. It is the only path to normalcy. None of us is safe until we all are.”

Red Cross Red Crescent staff and volunteers are constantly working to close the equity gap, ensuring that vaccines make it to the vulnerable individuals and communities that desperately need them. Their role is crucial, not only in vaccination but in informing communities, building trust, and dispelling COVID vaccine misinformation. They have now reached over 300 million people through immunisation activities.

In countries like Zambia, where health systems are fragile and rumours around vaccines are spreading fast, vaccine supply is just one of numerous obstacles. The Zambia Red Cross Society’s mobile COVID vaccination campaign takes vaccines directly to people in hard-to-access areas. Volunteers mobilise communities for vaccination, raise awareness about the mobile vaccination centres, provide information about vaccines and engage local leaders as advocates for healthy behaviour change.

Afghanistan’s health system is struggling as a new wave of COVID infections hits. Afghan Red Crescent is ramping up services at its health clinics across the country and its COVID hospital in Kabul, while supporting nationwide vaccination efforts and running information campaigns on preventing the spread of the virus.

A record surge of infections in the Pacific region is threatening to overwhelm hospitals and health systems which, until now, have largely avoided the worst of the pandemic. In countries like Fiji and Vanuatu, with more than 165 inhabited islands, Red Cross volunteers have been travelling by car, boat and foot to reach remote communities to increase awareness about COVID and get people vaccinated.

COVID not only thrives on inequality but deepens it. Women, urban communities and migrants have been disproportionately affected by the devastating socioeconomic impacts. More than 5 million children have also lost a parent or another caregiver to COVID. Psychosocial support has been at the centre of Red Cross Red Crescent work, and volunteers are seeing a significant rise in mental health support needs.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Categories : COVID HospitalsTags :

Cohorting an Effective Response for an Emerging Pandemic

On By ModernMedia
Phot by Artem Podrez on Unsplash

During the extenuating circumstances of an emerging pandemic, grouping patients together in one area or facility, a practice known as cohorting, was successful in providing high-quality care and containing infectious patients, according to a new study published in JAMA Open.

The University of Minnesota Medical School researchers reported that cohorting was implemented by M Health Fairview early in the pandemic when there was little known about how to effectively treat patients with COVID.

“This study highlights the academic and clinical expertise of the M Health Fairview system to deliver outstanding medical care to the people of Minnesota,” said Dr Greg Beilman, a critical care surgeon at the U of M Medical School and was a co-lead of the M Health Fairview COVID response team. “In this study we demonstrated our ability to rapidly bring new developments in science to the patient’s bedside and improve outcomes for patients affected by this frequently dire disease.”

Because every person being treated in the cohorts had COVID, frontline healthcare workers quickly gained experience in COVID care. These experienced specialists worked side by side with academic physicians who were translating the latest medical research into new solutions they could apply in real time to patient care. COVID patients had access to leading-edge clinical trials, internal COVID testing capabilities, and innovative technology.

The study found that dedicated COVID units in Minnesota were associated with a 2% overall improvement in in-hospital survival rates when patients were properly matched for severity of illness. Complications associated with COVID were significantly better in this group as was the swift implementation of new care processes by health care providers.

“The opportunity to care for patients at our COVID cohort hospitals was a shining light in a dark time for many of us,” said Dr Andrew Olson, medical intensivist at the U of M Medical School and medical director of COVID hospital medicine at M Health Fairview. “We watched our colleagues develop expertise, conduct research and care for one another while staying healthy in a challenging time.”

The research team hopes the cohorting method could be implemented during other infectious disease outbreaks, like viral pneumonia. The framework helps provide infectious patients the best care during times of rapid learning in scientific research.

“As the pandemic progressed, we had broad availability of personal protective equipment, vaccinations, and more health care workers developed familiarity with treatment of COVID,” said Dr Beilman. “These developments combined with the fact that the incidence of COVID decreased last year – this care model was no longer necessary.”

Researchers plan to further investigate which patients benefit most from care at such facilities, as well as evaluate the experience for those healthcare professionals who work in them.

Source: University of Minnesota Medical School

Categories : COVID Metabolic DisordersTags : 1 Comment

COVID Infection not Associated With Increased New-onset Diabetes Risk

On By ModernMedia
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Using in vitro modelling the SARS-CoV-2 infection of human pancreatic cells, researchers have found that COVID infection is likely not associated with an increased new-onset diabetes risk. At the same time, another study has suggested that in hospitalised COVID patients, it may be a temporary form of the disease resulting from the acute stress of viral infection.

The findings, which are to appear in Cell Reports, address concerns raised over the past 18 months that infection with SARS-CoV-2 may trigger new-onset diabetes.  However, the supporting evidence for this has remained sparse, with at times conflicting evidence impeding with a proper risk assessment.

The team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 targets virtually all types of pancreatic cells, not just the insulin-producing beta cells, using the ACE2 receptor to gain access. However, the infection in the pancreas remained highly circumscribed, largely non-cytopathic and despite high viral burden in infected subsets, promoted only modest cellular perturbations and inflammatory responses.

Similar experimental outcomes were also observed after in vitro infection with endemic coronaviruses not previously associated with diabetes. Taken together, these findings challenge the notion that direct beta cell infection and destruction by SARS-CoV-2 can precipitate diabetes onset.

“Our provisional conclusions indicate that SARS-CoV-2 infection is likely not associated with an increased risk for new-onset diabetes,” said study leader Dirk Homann, MD, Professor of Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai. “However, a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection may yet promote prolonged glycometabolic perturbations and even an increase in cumulative diabetes risk in vulnerable populations. Over the next few years, we need to pay careful attention to emerging observational and retrospective studies that determine diabetes incidence rates of previously SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals.”

To evaluate permissiveness of human pancreatic islet cells to in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infection, the team of researchers employed an in vitro infection model of primary human pancreatic islets with SARS-CoV-2 as well as endemic human coronaviruses. The team precisely delineated pancreatic infection patterns and associated cellular changes at the single-cell level. Altogether, they found that the extent and consequences of pancreatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, even under in vitro conditions of enhanced virus exposure, remained decidedly limited.

“Concerns surrounding the possibility that infection with SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID, may cause new-onset diabetes persist amidst an evolving research landscape,” said Verena van der Heide, MD, PhD, co-first author of the study and postdoctoral research fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Our findings stand in notable contrast to three recent reports that also based their speculation about the diabetogenic potential of SARS-CoV-2 on in vitro infection of human islets. As detailed in our manuscript, however, we believe that our careful experimental design and comprehensive analysis strategy make a compelling case for the considerable limits of pancreatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

“There are strong epidemiological associations between COVID infection in humans and diabetes, but whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus actually infects and damages the insulin-producing cells in the human pancreas, the so-called ‘beta cells,’ has been highly controversial,” said Andrew Stewart, MD, Director of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute at Icahn Mount Sinai. “This study by Dr. Homann and his collaborators in Mount Sinai’s Precision Immunology Institute and the Department of Microbiology provides strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 causes little or no damage to beta cells, making it unlikely that COVID infection can predispose to development of Type 1 diabetes.”    

The conclusions they came to are in line with a 2020 report by Dr Homann and his team, showing that ACE2 receptors and other entry factors are lacking among islet endocrine cells but readily detected in microvascular and ductal structures of the pancreas.

Meanwhile, a second, separate study of 594 individuals who exhibited signs of diabetes mellitus during the early pandemic showed that half of the 79 patients without a diabetes diagnosis reverted to normal blood sugar levels by one year.

“We believe that the inflammatory stress caused by COVID may be a leading contributor to ‘new-onset’ or newly diagnosed diabetes,” said Sara Cromer, MD, lead author of the second study. “Instead of directly causing diabetes, COVID may push patients with pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes to see a physician for the first time, where their blood sugar disorder can be clinically diagnosed. Our study showed these individuals had higher inflammatory markers and more frequently required admission to hospital ICUs than COVID patients with pre-existing diabetes.”

The second study was published in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications.

Source: Mount Sinai Medical Center

Categories : COVIDTags : 1 Comment

SA COVID Study: ‘No Longer at Code Red’, Prof Madhi Says

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Image from Pixabay

Commenting on a recently published South African study showing a high COVID antibody sero-prevalence and decoupling of hospitalisation and death rates, first author Professor Shabir Madhi said that “we [are] no longer at “code red’.”

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted in Gauteng from October 22 to December 9, 2021, showed a high sero-positivity rate even as the Omicron wave started. Under-12s (56%) had the lowest rate of sero-positivity, while it was 80% in over-50s and 85% in inner city residents. Unsurprising, vaccinated individuals had much higher rates (93%) than unvaccinated ones (68%). Epidemiologic data showed that the incidence of COVID infection increased and subsequently declined more rapidly during the fourth wave than it had during the three previous waves.

The researchers imputed 10.4 million infections, compared to the <1 million COVID cases recorded before Omicron. The researchers also evaluated COVID epidemiologic trends in the province, including cases, hospitalisations, recorded deaths, and excess deaths from the start of the pandemic through January 12, 2022.

At time of Omicron wave onset, 59159 Covid attributable deaths using excess mortality data (rate 396/100,000) in Gauteng. Infection fatality risk for Gauteng 0.57% pre-omicron (substantially higher than 0.019% imputed for seasonal flu pre-Covid calculated using similar methods).

In Gauteng at the start of the Omicron wave. vaccine coverage 36% for at least 1 dose in Gauteng, but 61% in over-50s (responsible for >80% deaths pre-Omicron). The sero-survey showed that, 70% of vaccinated were also infected pre-omicron, indiciating a substantial prevalence of hybrid immunity

Prof Madhi further noted analysis of the incidence trends shows a “massive decoupling” of COVID cases to hospitalisation and death rates over the course of Omicron dominance, which was seen in all age groups.
Omicron was responsible for only 3% of COVID deaths compared to 50% for those in Delta-dominant waves. In the 50-59 age group, Omicron was responsible for only 2% of deaths compared to 53% of Delta-dominant deaths.

They also found that children under 12 were not seriously affected during the Omicron wave, with the Omicron wave making up 26% of hospitalisations and 17% of deaths versus 39% and 47%, respectively with the Delta wave.

The researchers concluded that the SA experience indicates that we are now moving into the convalescent phase of the COVID pandemic. Prof Madhi noted in his tweets that this is likely to be similar in other countries that have had a low or modest vaccine uptake, but which have also seen high rates of natural infection – which, in low- and middle-income countries, has likely been accompanied by significant under-reporting of COVID fatalities. 

Given low rates of vaccine rollout and donations, Africa should focus on vaccinating its vulnerable elderly population, Prof Madhi recommended.

He tweeted that SA had expressed optimism that the pandemic had reached a turning point “which many in high income countries dismissed as ’empirical’ and not applicable to their settings despite high vaccine coverage,” subsequently materialised around the world wherever COVID was “not [a] zero-sum game.”

Categories : COVID Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Severe COVID Raises Risk of Pregnancy Complications

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Source: Pixabay

A University of Oxford study of over 4000 pregnant women indicates that severe COVID in pregnancy increases the risk of pre-labour caesarean birth, a very or extreme preterm birth, stillborn birth, and the need for admission to a neonatal unit.  

The study, published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, included 4436 pregnant women hospitalised in the UK with symptomatic COVID from March 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021, of whom 13.9% of had severe COVID. As well as having increased risks of adverse pregnancy-related outcomes, women with severe infection were more likely to be aged 30 years or over, be overweight or obese, be of mixed ethnicity, or have gestational diabetes compared with those with mild or moderate infection.  

“This new analysis shows that certain pregnant women admitted to a hospital with COVID face an elevated risk of severe disease. However, it shows once again the strongly protective effect of vaccination against severe disease and adverse outcomes for both mother and baby,” said senior author Marian Knight, FMedSci, of the University of Oxford. “This study emphasises the importance of ensuring that interventions to promote vaccine uptake are particularly focused towards those at highest risk.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : COVID Healthcare Politics and RegulationsTags : 1 Comment

Political Factors Drove Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin COVID Prescriptions

On By ModernMedia
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Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two COVID treatments that have been shown to be ineffective for those purposes, were more heavily prescribed in the second half of 2020 in parts of the US that voted for the Republican party, according to a new research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“We’d all like to think of the health care system as basically non-partisan, but the COVID pandemic may have started to chip away at this assumption,” said lead author Michael Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management.

The study compared prescription rates for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin with rates for two control medications, methotrexate sodium and albendazole, which are similar drugs but have not been proposed as COVID treatments. Comparing different US counties, researchers looked at deidentified medical claims data from January 2019 through December 2020 from roughly 18.5 million adults as well as census and voting data.

Overall, hydroxychloroquine prescribing volume from June through December 2020 was roughly double what it had been in the previous year, while the volume of ivermectin prescriptions was seven-fold higher in December 2020 than the previous year. In 2019, prescribing of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin did not differ according to county Republican vote share. However, that changed in 2020.

After June 2020 – coinciding with when the US Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine – prescribing volume for the drug was significantly higher in counties with the highest Republican vote share as compared to counties with the lowest vote share.

As for ivermectin, prescribing volume was significantly higher in the highest versus lowest Republican vote share counties in December 2020 a 964% increase on the overall prescribing volume in 2019. The spike lined up with with a number of key events, such as the mid-November 2020 release of a now-retracted manuscript claiming that the drug was highly effective against COVID, and a widely publicised US Senate hearing in early December that included testimony from a doctor promoting ivermectin as a COVID treatment.

Neither of the control drugs had differences in overall prescribing volume or in prescribing by county Republican vote share.

The authors concluded that the prescribing of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin may have been influenced by physician or patient political affiliation. “This is the first evidence, to our knowledge, of such a political divide for a basic clinical decision like infection treatment or prevention,” said Barnett.

Source: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Categories : COVIDTags :

India’s True Pandemic Death Toll Likely Over Three Million

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FIG. 1. Percentages of adults reporting daily death in household, expected percentage in 2020, and daily confirmed COVID deaths in India, 1 June 2020 to 1 July 2021. COVID Tracker deaths (red line, left vertical scale) represent COVID deaths reported daily (smoothed for rolling 7-day averages) at age 35 or older, less a subtraction value of 0.59% to represent nonhousehold reporting. Expected all-cause deaths (grey dashed line, left vertical scale) per year of 3.4% (see text), with 7-day smoothed weekly adjustment from variation observed among 480,000 deaths in the Million Death Study from 2004 to 2014. Confirmed COVID deaths (blue bars, right vertical scale) are daily reports from Covid19india.org (2).
Credit: DOI: 10.1126/science.abm5154

An updated estimate for COVID mortalities in India puts the true number at over three million, which is so much higher than the official estimate of around a million that it would raise the World Health Organization’s official global death toll by 50%.

When the COVID Delta wave hit India over early to mid-2021, hospitals were filled beyond capacity, oxygen ran out, and community networks for tending to the dead were overwhelmed. At the time, government reporting put the death toll at under a million.

However, other sources estimated that the toll was far worse than this, likely in the millions. A more accurate measure of COVID mortality in India puts that number at 3.2 million people, according to a paper published in Science. 

“The analyses find that India’s cumulative COVID deaths by September 2021 were six to seven times higher than reported officially,” the international team of researchers wrote.

“You have to put that into context,” said Associate Professor of Economics Paul Novosad, co-author of the paper. “At the time that we were writing this, India was reporting about half a million official COVID deaths, the World Health Organization was reporting about 4 to 5 million COVID deaths globally, so just this adjustment – just correctly counting the deaths in India – is going to raise the global mortality count of COVID by almost 50%.”

The team looked at all-causes mortality from an independent survey of 140 000 adults, and from two government data sources including deaths reported in health facilities and registered deaths in 10 Indian states. Comparing these to previous years without COVID, they found that total deaths increased by 26% to 29% in the COVID period compared to total deaths in past years. This range was consistent across separate data sources, the researchers wrote.

“We’re triangulating on this number from a lot of different directions and have broad agreement regarding the range that we’re finding,” said Novosad.

Novosad’s work incorporates many novel types of data, including measures of well-being generated from satellite images, data collected by government programs, and archival administrative records not previously used for policy design. His research lab, which focuses on India, has created an open source data platform to support socioeconomic research in India and the developing world.

“A large part of my research agenda is based on finding new, 21st-century data sources and mobilising them for better research and policy,” he said.

Novosad believes this work can help answer many  critical questions about how governments and organisations can respond to the global pandemic.

“The decisions you make are better if they’re based on true facts about the world. If you don’t have data, then you just have to work on stories and impressions,” he said. “We need an empirical foundation for this kind of work.”

Source: Dartmouth College