scholarly journals Visualizing and Assessing US County-Level COVID19 Vulnerability

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Cahill ◽  
Carleigh Kutac ◽  
Nicholas L Rider
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Census Data ◽  
New York Times ◽  
United States Public Health ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poverty Rate ◽  
County Level ◽  
Macro Scale

Objective: Like most of the world, the United States public health and economy are impacted by the COVID19 pandemic. However, discrete pandemic effects may not be fully realized on the macro-scale. With this perspective, our goal is to visualize spread of the pandemic and measure county-level features which may portend vulnerability. Materials and Methods: We accessed the New York Times GitHub repository COVID19 data and 2018 US Census data for all US Counties. The disparate datasets were merged and filtered to allow for visualization and assessments about case fatality rate (CFR%) and associated demographic, ethnic and economic features. Results: Our results suggest that county-level COVID19 fatality rates are related to advanced population age (p <0.001) and less diversity as evidenced by higher proportion of Caucasians in High CFR% counties (p < 0.001). Also, lower CFR% counties had a greater proportion of the population reporting has having 2 or more races (p <0.001). We noted no significant differences between High and Low CFR% counties with respect to mean income or poverty rate. Conclusions: Unique COVID19 impacts are realized at the county level. Use of public datasets, data science skills and information visualization can yield helpful insights to drive understanding about community-level vulnerability.

scholarly journals Multilevel modeling of county-level excessive alcohol use, rurality, and COVID-19 case fatality rates in the US

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253466
Author(s):  
George Pro ◽  
Paul A. Gilbert ◽  
Julie A. Baldwin ◽  
Clare C. Brown ◽  
Sean Young ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Alcohol Misuse ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
Population Characteristics ◽  
County Level ◽  
Model Case ◽  
The Us

Objective Reports of disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates are emerging in the public health literature as the pandemic continues to unfold. Alcohol misuse varies across the US and is related to poorer health and comorbidities that likely affect the severity of COVID-19 infection. High levels of pre-pandemic alcohol misuse in some counties may have set the stage for worse COVID-19 outcomes. Furthermore, this relationship may depend on how rural a county is, as access to healthcare in rural communities has lagged behind more urban areas. The objective of this study was to test for associations between county-level COVID-19 mortality, pre-pandemic county-level excessive drinking, and county rurality. Method We used national COVID-19 data from the New York Times to calculate county-level case fatality rates (n = 3,039 counties and county equivalents; October 1 –December 31, 2020) and other external county-level data sources for indicators of rurality and health. We used beta regression to model case fatality rates, adjusted for several county-level population characteristics. We included a multilevel component to our model and defined state as a random intercept. Our focal predictor was a single variable representing nine possible combinations of low/mid/high alcohol misuse and low/mid/high rurality. Results The median county-level COVID-19 case fatality rate was 1.57%. Compared to counties with low alcohol misuse and low rurality (referent), counties with high levels of alcohol and mid (β = -0.17, p = 0.008) or high levels of rurality (β = -0.24, p<0.001) demonstrated significantly lower case fatality rates. Conclusions Our findings highlight the intersecting roles of county-level alcohol consumption, rurality, and COVID-19 mortality.

“Little Plants in the Country”: Henry Ford's Village Industries and the Beginning of Decentralized Technology in Modern America

Prospects ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 181-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard P. Segal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical Proximity ◽  
The World ◽  
Word Processors

“Technology Spurs Decentralization Across the Country.” So reads a 1984 New York Times article on real-estate trends in the United States. The contemporary revolution in information processing and transmittal now allows large businesses and other institutions to disperse their offices and other facilities across the country, even across the world, without loss of the policy- and decision-making abilities formerly requiring regular physical proximity. Thanks to computers, word processors, and the like, decentralization has become a fact of life in America and other highly technological societies.

scholarly journals Timing of social distancing policies and COVID-19 mortality: county-level evidence from the U.S.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes ◽  
Neeraj Kaushal ◽  
Ashley N. Muchow
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
County Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Level Information ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

AbstractUsing county-level data on COVID-19 mortality and infections, along with county-level information on the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), we examine how the speed of NPI adoption affected COVID-19 mortality in the United States. Our estimates suggest that adopting safer-at-home orders or non-essential business closures 1 day before infections double can curtail the COVID-19 death rate by 1.9%. This finding proves robust to alternative measures of NPI adoption speed, model specifications that control for testing, other NPIs, and mobility and across various samples (national, the Northeast, excluding New York, and excluding the Northeast). We also find that the adoption speed of NPIs is associated with lower infections and is unrelated to non-COVID deaths, suggesting these measures slowed contagion. Finally, NPI adoption speed appears to have been less effective in Republican counties, suggesting that political ideology might have compromised their efficacy.

The Empire of Death: How Culture and Economics Affect Informed Consent in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J. Annas ◽  
Frances H. Miller
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Jack Kevorkian ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
Legislative Changes

American culture reflects a paradox: the more openly we discuss death and its inevitability, the more money we spend to postpone and deny it. Sherwin Nuland's book How We Die, a frank description of the way our bodies deteriorate with and without medical intervention, topped the New York Times best seller list in the spring of 1994. At the same time, Jack Kevorkian, arguably the world 's best known physician, was being acquitted of violating Michigan 's law against assisted suicide, while a Michigan commission was debating legislative changes to permit physicians to help their terminally ill patients kill themselves. Despite such open discussion of death and expansion of the informed consent doctrine, U.S. medical expenditures at the end of life remain astronomically high. Most of this elevated spending is attributable to new medical technology.In J.G. Ballard 's Empire of the Sun, the United States, British and Japanese cultures are contrasted through the eyes of a young British boy incarcerated by the Japanese army in China during World War II.

The Role of Religious Value in Political Judgment

1968 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-427
Author(s):  
Quentin L. Quade
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Religious Interventions ◽  
Number Of Citations

In The issues of the New York Times from February, 1965, to November, 1967, religious leaders and groups are reported 185 times commenting on one political issue: Vietnam. If a comparable search were done on an inclusive list of political topics, such as civil rights, the number of citations would be greatly multiplied. Most of these statements are on substantive issues — the United States should do this, do that — rather than on the theoretical questions about religion's role vis à vis politics. Most of these religious interventions presume some connection between religion and politics, whether articulated or not. A similar examination of some leading religious journals, for example, Chrisianity and Crisis, Commonweal, Christian Century, America, produces similar results: in articles and editorials, such publications are deeply immersed in direct commentary on political problems of our time.

scholarly journals Political News Discourse Analysis Based on an Attitudinal Perspective of the Appraisal Theory—Taking the New York Times’ Report China-DPRK Relations as an Example

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinxiu Jin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
North Korea ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Political News ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship among China, the United States and North Korea has already been a focus of international politics. From June 19 to 20, North Korea leader Kim Jong-un ended his third visit to China within 100 days. This is also his three consecutive visits to China since he took office in December 2011. The high density and frequency are not only rare in the history of China-DPRK relations, but also seem to be unique in the history of international relations, indicating that China-DPRK relations are welcoming new era. This paper selects the New York Times’ report on China-DPRK relations as an example, which is based on an attitudinal perspective of the appraisal theory to analyze American attitudes toward China. Attitudes are positive and negative, explicit and implicit. Whether the attitude is good or not depends on the linguistic meaning of expressing attitude. The meaning of language is positive, and the attitude of expression is positive; the meaning of language is negative, and the attitude of expression is negative. The study found that most of the attitude resources are affect (which are always negative affect), which are mainly realized through such means as lexical, syntactical and rhetorical strategies implicitly or explicitly. All these negative evaluations not only help construct a discourse mode for building the bad image of China but also are not good to China-DPRK relations. The United States wants to tarnish image of China and destroy the relationship between China and North Korea by its political news discourse.

scholarly journals GOVERNANCE OF THE FACEBOOK PRIVACY CRISIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Trautman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Front Page ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
Social Media Platforms

In November 2018, The New York Times ran a front-page story describing how Facebook concealed knowledge and disclosure of Russian-linked activity and exploitation resulting in Kremlin led disruption of the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections, through the use of global hate campaigns and propaganda warfare. By mid-December 2018, it became clear that the Russian efforts leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections were much more extensive than previously thought. Two studies conducted for the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), by: (1) Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika; and (2) New Knowledge, provide considerable new information and analysis about the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) influence operations targeting American citizens.By early 2019 it became apparent that a number of influential and successful high growth social media platforms had been used by nation states for propaganda purposes. Over two years earlier, Russia was called out by the U.S. intelligence community for their meddling with the 2016 American presidential elections. The extent to which prominent social media platforms have been used, either willingly or without their knowledge, by foreign powers continues to be investigated as this Article goes to press. Reporting by The New York Times suggests that it wasn’t until the Facebook board meeting held September 6, 2017 that board audit committee chairman, Erskin Bowles, became aware of Facebook’s internal awareness of the extent to which Russian operatives had utilized the Facebook and Instagram platforms for influence campaigns in the United States. As this Article goes to press, the degree to which the allure of advertising revenues blinded Facebook to their complicit role in offering the highest bidder access to Facebook users is not yet fully known. This Article can not be a complete chapter in the corporate governance challenge of managing, monitoring, and oversight of individual privacy issues and content integrity on prominent social media platforms. The full extent of Facebook’s experience is just now becoming known, with new revelations yet to come. All interested parties: Facebook users; shareholders; the board of directors at Facebook; government regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and Congress must now figure out what has transpired and what to do about it. These and other revelations have resulted in a crisis for Facebook. American democracy has been and continues to be under attack. This article contributes to the literature by providing background and an account of what is known to date and posits recommendations for corrective action.

scholarly journals Big Data and Journalism: How American Journalism is Adopting the Use of Big Data

Novum Jus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Julián Rodríguez ◽  
Andrew M. Clark
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Big Data ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
American Journalism ◽  
Depth Interviews

This research uses in-depth interviews with three data journalists from the Houston Chronicle and the New York Times in the United States to describe the role of data journalists, and to illustrate how and why they use big data in their stories. Data journalists possess a unique set of skills including being able to find data, gather data, and use that data to tell a compelling story in a written and visually coherent way. Results show that as newspapers move to a digital format the role of a data journalist is becoming more essential as is the importance of laws such as the Freedom of Information Act to enable journalists to request and use data to continue to inform the public and hold those in power accountable. 

scholarly journals Communicating the “Race” for the COVID-19 Vaccine: An Exploratory Study in Newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Massarani ◽  
Luiz Felipe Fernandes Neves
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The search for an effective solution to control the COVID-19 pandemic has mobilized an unprecedented effort by science to develop a vaccine against the disease, in which pharmaceutical companies and scientific institutions from several countries participate. The world closely monitors research in this area, especially through media coverage, which plays a key role in the dissemination of trustful information and in the public’s understanding of science and health. On the other hand, anti-vaccine movements dispute space in this communication environment, which raises concerns of the authorities regarding the willingness of the population to get vaccinated. In this exploratory study, we used computer-assisted content analysis techniques, with WordStat software, to identify the most addressed terms, semantic clusters, actors, institutions, and countries in the texts and titles of 716 articles on the COVID-19 vaccine, published by The New York Times (US), The Guardian (United Kingdom), and Folha de São Paulo (Brazil), from January to October 2020. We sought to analyze similarities and differences of countries that stood out by the science denialism stance of their government leaders, reflecting on the severity of the pandemic in these places. Our results indicate that each newspaper emphasized the potential vaccines developed by laboratories in their countries or that have established partnerships with national institutions, but with a more politicized approach in Brazil and a little more technical-scientific approach in the United States and the United Kingdom. In external issues, the newspapers characterized the search for the discovery of a vaccine as a race in which nations and blocs historically marked by economic, political, and ideological disputes are competing, such as the United States, Europe, China, and Russia. The results lead us to reflect on the responsibility of the media to not only inform correctly but also not to create stigmas related to the origin of the vaccine and combat misinformation.

The Civilianization of a Nuclear Weapon Effects Test: Operation ARGUS

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Mundey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Nuclear Weapon ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
White House ◽  
International Geophysical Year ◽  
Test Operation ◽  
International Geophysical

In 1958 the United States secretly conducted a low-yield, high-atmosphere nuclear weapon effects test in the South Atlantic code-named ARGUS. It tested a theory devised by Nicholas Christofilos that an anti-missile shield could be created around the planet by trapping high-energy electrons in the Earth’s radiation field. In order to conduct the test before the October 1958 nuclear test moratorium, the military borrowed International Geophysical Year equipment and used the program as cover for the clandestine nuclear tests. Though the experiment determined that an electron shield could not work, it provided important research data for weapon effects, atmospheric physics, and long-distance communications. In March 1959, Hanson Baldwin and Walter Sullivan of the New York Times published an unauthorized account of the tests. In response, the White House presented ARGUS as a civilian science program of the International Geophysical Year rather than a nuclear weapon effects test. In the internal debate about declassification, in the publicity of the test, and in the memories of James Killian and Herbert York, Operation ARGUS demonstrates that many scientists and Americans remained comfortable with anti-militarism, even under militarized policies.

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