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Working paper shows COVID-19 is spiking in Red counties, flat in Blue this fall

Graph showing surge in Covid-19 in Red States; Blue States flat

A Harvard Pop Center Working Paper, “The changing political geographies of COVID-19 in the US,” shows that this fall there is a reverse in the trend from the spring, when case counts and excess death rates were higher in counties that lean Democratic. This fall, the counties that lean most Republican are experiencing a spike in cases and death rates, whereas the rates in counties that lean more Democratic are…

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1-2-3: Counting the missteps of the U.S. Federal Government’s handling of COVID-19

Brick wall with graffiti

A new Harvard Pop Center Working Paper assesses the impact of the U.S. Federal Government’s “missteps” regarding the entry, spread and inequities associated with COVID-19. Authors include: William P. Hanage, Christian Testa, Jarvis T. Chen, L. Davis, Elise Pechter, Mauricio  Santillana, and Nancy Krieger. Photo credit: Nancy Krieger

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Geo-mapping risk of COVID-19 in India

Map of India with PC districts in background with headline Geo-mapping of COVID-19 Risk Correlates Across Districts and Parliamentary Constituencies

A paper published in a special edition of the Harvard Data Science Review utilizes geo-mapping to identify high-risk areas for the spread of COVID-19 across the Districts and Parliamentary Constituencies of India. The researchers focus on four risk correlates including: population density percentage of population that is exposed to crowding in a household, percentage of population without access to handwashing facilities percentage of population over 65 years of age These…

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Quantifying mental health impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns among senior population in Turkey

Head shot of Onur Altindag

Visiting scientist (and former Harvard Bell Fellow) Onur Altindag, PhD, is an author on a new working paper that sets out to quantify the mental health effects experienced by those aged 65 years and older during a period of strict curfew imposed by the Turkish government in response to Covid-19.  

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STILL MISSING: US racial/ethnic data for COVID-19 cases

COVID-19 virus with question marks layered on top of it

A Harvard Pop Center working paper finds that despite a federal policy that went into effect in early June requiring that racial/ethnic data be reported for all COVID-19 cases, it is still not being adequately reported. Based on publicly available data at the CDC website, close to half of the cases reported between August 28, 2020 and September 16, 2020 are still missing this key information. “These findings suggest that…

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COVID-19 statistics by Congressional districts across the United States

Map of Congressional Districts in U.S.

Professor of population health and geography S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, and his colleague Priyanka N deSouza have published a paper that presents the first estimates of COVID-19 cumulative cases, deaths and case fatality rates across the 436 policy-relevant Congressional districts in the U.S. Image: Wikimediacommons

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WBUR reports: MA home-based child care providers hit hard as a result of COVID-19

Headshot of Stephanie Jones

Harvard Pop Center faculty affiliate Stephanie Jones, PhD, the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), and her colleagues compiled research focused on the status of families and young children in Massachusetts during the spring of 2020. The findings of this collaboration between HGSE and Abt Associates, published in Report 1 and Report 2, are elucidated in this piece of reporting by…

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ENOUGH: Nancy Krieger looks back (and forward) as country grapples with convergence of multiple crises

the word ENOUGH in Gray and White big letters

Harvard Pop Center faculty affiliate Nancy Krieger, PhD, has written an editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health that sheds light on the nature of the inequities exposed by COVID-19. Krieger also shares words of inspiration and encouragement—her own, as well as those of notable historical figures—that call for us to stay strong in the fight to bring about “health justice, democratic governance, and an equitable, sustainable future.”

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How much does age contribute to the wide variation in COVID-19 case fatality rates across nine countries?

Headshots of Nikkil and Till

Recent Bell Fellow Nikkil Sudharsanan, PhD, and Harvard Pop Center faculty member Till Bärnighausen, MD, PhD, ScD and their colleagues have published a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine that finds… “Selective testing and identifying of older cases considerably warps estimates of the lethality of COVID-19 within populations and comparisons across countries.” The findings suggest that in order to accurately compare how countries are able to care for patients…

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Study shines light on how caregivers are faring during COVID-19

headshot of Sung Park

Our Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Sung S. Park, PhD, has authored a paper published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B that examines the physical and mental health of caregivers (those offering short-term and long-term care) vs. non-caregivers during the early stages of COVID-19. Findings point to caregivers, in general, faring worse than non-caregivers in terms of fatigue and mental health, with long-term caregivers suffering more physical symptoms…

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