What covid -19 pandemic has taught us about data consumption?

Covid – 19 has bought about an unprecedented crisis which was last seen over a century ago. The Spanish Flu of 1918-19 infected over 500 million people worldwide (one third of the population) and caused death to over 50 million people. The current stat of Covid – 19 pales in comparison so far.

Why is it the case? Considering we have more than 5 times more population than what we had back in 1918.

One reason people are saying is, Spanish flu has ended and Covid – 19 haven’t. So there is always a doomsday possibility that Covid – 19’s victims count can go past Spanish Flu’s. Considering, various countries are at different stages of developing the vaccine for Covid -19, this doomsday prophecy doesn’t seem to hold much merit. (Fun fact: Vaccine for especially for Spanish Flu was never developed)

The other reason people claim has to do with the stronger immunity of our generation than our previous generation due to the availability of different kind of vaccination. This post by Keir Watson argues that our immunity has not been altered significantly in the last 50,000 years let alone 100 years. Further he also pointed out that since we have started living in an artificially created Eco system our immunity may be more dis-regulated than earlier.

The third and the most compelling argument is that the high information dissemination rate is helping everyone to pass on the knowledge on or before time. This not only helps researcher around the world to collaborate to develop vaccines faster. It also helps policy makers to implement policies on time. But the biggest advantage is that the information is being available to common public which is making them aware of the seriousness of the crisis.

It is not only enough to pass this information to public. Most of us either do not know or do not care about transmission rate, death rate, etc. Unless it is given in a form which can be easily understood by us.

Providing data in a graphical format helps a lot in making people understand what is happening. Some very good dashboard has come up in disseminating this information. Take for example this world covid tracker or our very own India covid tracker. There was also one interesting simulation by Washington Post on corona spread. All these above examples are very effective in either informing or educating the people.

This pandemic has exposes more people to the benefits of the graphical representation of data. This will help us to transfer this learning into other fields like business, environment or economics.

Perfview Management Consulting not only provides dashboard development service but also helps you build an entire Eco system by which you can consume the data effectively and efficiently. Contact us for a free demo.