Jeffrey S. Morris2 days ago2 minA Seat at the Table: Key role of Biostatistics in the pandemic, and what we have learned so farI gave a presentation at University of Pittsburgh (virtually of course) on 9/24/20, and discussed my motivation and vision for this blog,...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 183 minPrevent Epidemics: great resources for reliable updates on scientific findings in pandemicPrevent Epidemics has a Weekly Science Review that provides brief summary and discussion of major peer-reviewed scientific articles on th...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 172 minWhat is our current state of pandemic knowledge, and what can we expect in the next year?I was asked to give a presentation by the University of Pennsylvania Faculty-Staff Christian Forum today, entitled "COVID-19: A Biostatis...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 143 minMore discussion of fast antigen tests, potentially the key to safe school reopenings.I have previously posted about how I believe fast antigen tests are the key for surveillance and safe school reopenings here and here. ...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 105 minTexas, we have a (data) problem.Here is a recent report talking about some of the data recording problems in Texas, which has been a mess for a long time. The gist of th...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 106 minHow will mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus affect the pandemic and our vaccine efforts?Nature just published an informative review article discussing mutations and mutation rate in SARS-CoV-2, with special discussion of a pa...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 913 minIvor Cummins: Evaluating some European unconventional doubter/denier viewpoints This video by Ivor Cummins describes some of his unconventional viewpoints. He supports the position that mandatory lockdowns were not n...
Jeffrey S. MorrisSep 92 minSeparation of Science and State?I see too many recent reports suggesting attempts at political influence over the scientific messaging coming from the CDC, FDA, and NIH ...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 303 minMore thoughts the key role of antigen tests in community viral management and school openingsA NY Times article published today talks about some seldom-discussed limitations of current PCR testing and highlights some of the point...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 262 minWhat counties in the USA are testing, and which are not?From the PolicyLab testing data from HHS, below is a plot of SARS-CoV-2 testing rate of each county per 100k residents, with hotter color...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 2612 minReview of Mayo Clinic study cited in FDA emergency use approval of convalescent plasmaThis week the FDA gave emergency approval for the use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19, making the strategy broadly available to ...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 201 minNew PolicyLab Dashboard to Track Numbers for School OpeningsThe PolicyLab team of collaborators at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania has assembled a new data dashbo...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 179 minFast Antigen Tests: the key to containment and safe school reopenings?School openings will bring hundreds to thousands of individuals together for long periods of time from communities with substantial coron...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 88 minProjecting county-level COVID-19 levels, and targeted mitigation to keep COVID-19 manageableSeveral times I have mentioned the PolicyLab COVID-19 modeling efforts in which I have been privileged to be a part, and that I believe i...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 83 minAsymptomatic infected may be just as contagious as those with symptomsA paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine gives us insights into why it is so hard to keep the spread of this virus under control: asym...
Jeffrey S. MorrisAug 19 minHow can USA schools open safely w/ community virus levels 20-500x the other countries that opened?This post is following up on my previous post on how difficult the school opening decision is. A lot of people have been mentioning to m...
Jeffrey S. MorrisJul 281 minUsing Data Science to Better Understand COVID-19I was interviewed by Dr. Steven Wexner, MD, for the American College of Surgeons as part of their "From the Frontlines" interview series....
Jeffrey S. MorrisJul 227 minReopening Schools? The trickiest balance between denial and alarmism, and Israel's experience.This article describes Israels' experience with the pandemic, in which sudden and apparently careless opening of schools seems to have di...
Jeffrey S. MorrisJul 211 minRacial disparities in COVID-19 infections in PhiladelphiaOur serology (antibody test) working group at Penn has completed some research studying the seropositivity of pregnant women in the Unive...
Jeffrey S. MorrisJul 1915 minDenial, alarmism and the COVID-19 crisisOne theme I've seen play out during this pandemic is that the political divisions and culture wars that have increasingly characterized o...
