Science

Returning to schools and universities in the time of coronavirus: some statistical suggestions

Written by Giovanni Sebastiani and Julian Stander on 07 October 2020.

Pupils returned to school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after the summer break mainly during the week beginning 31 August 2020. In Scotland, they returned earlier in August. The risks associated with returning to school have been the subject of much recent political and scientific debate; see, for example, The Royal Society’s DELVE Initiative reports on balancing the risks of pupils returning to schools and on statistical designs for studies into Covid-19 transmission in schools.

A perspective on real-time epidemic surveillance for Covid-19

Written by Peter J. Diggle and Sylvia Richardson on 30 September 2020.

Effective, real-time surveillance is key to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. In what follows, we first set out a set of principles that may usefully guide real-time surveillance systems for emerging infectious diseases and discuss these in the context of Covid-19. We then briefly review a range of potential sources of data and describe in broad terms strategies for study design and data analysis.

Off the “radar”? Here are some alternatives

Written by Alexandre Morin-Chassé on 24 September 2020.

Radar charts, also called web charts, spider charts or star charts, are often used to display various characteristics of a profile simultaneously. Whether it presents a tennis player’s statistics or a client’s preferences, the main outcome of a radar chart is a simple polygon, commonly known as a shape. This shape has specificities: it covers a surface, has sides of various lengths, has many different angles, is often colored, etc. The singularity of this shape is sure to help catch readers’ often limited attention. Before long, they are intrigued, trying to interpret the meaning of this geometric form.

Lethality of Covid-19 in Great Britain over 12 registration weeks

Written by Sheila M. Bird and Bent Nielsen on 04 August 2020.

Excess deaths – the number of those dying above the average of the past five years – is a crucial metric for assessing the lethality of Covid-19. It measures the immediate toll, both direct and indirect, that the virus, SARS-CoV-2, has exacted.

Covid-19 deaths: How are gender, age and underlying health condition related?

Written by James Jackson on 27 July 2020.

Much has been said about the demographic trends of Covid-19. It has been widely reported that deaths are more common in males; more common in the elderly; and more common amongst those with an “underlying health condition”. But to what extent is this the case? And how are these variables associated with each other?