The Su Lab Blog

Jumpstarting Community Conversations with Outbreak.info

Emily Haag — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 21:13:32 +0000

How Scientists are Using Data to Increase COVID-19 Testing, Vaccinations, and Health Literacy in Arkansas In rural Arkansas, thousands of people lacked easy access to COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and health education, including information on emerging variants. That is, until biomedical scientists from the Arkansas State University campus of the New York Institute of Technology College of...

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Confronting COVID-19 through the News: A Journalist’s Experience with Data During the Pandemic

Emily Haag — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 21:38:03 +0000

A young writer in Japan who has been tackling the pandemic from viewpoint of the news shares about using Outbreak.info to access vital data. Anna Nishino entered the world of journalism in the middle of a pandemic. Assigned to cover COVID-19 from her first day on the job, she had to face the challenges experienced by all journalists at a time dubbed “the Infodemic” – the challenge of answering...

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Wastewater Treatment Plant Scientists Track Variants with the Help of Outbreak.info

Emily Haag — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:17:16 +0000

When someone washes their hands, flushes a toilet, or showers, the wastewater is discharged to municipal sanitary sewer pipes and flows to a wastewater treatment plant. Before the water is treated, the raw wastewater can be analyzed to detect the prevalence of circulating viruses. Through wastewater-based epidemiology, scientists can take a snapshot of public health in a region. Moreover...

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Aspiring Virologist Uses Outbreak.info to Understand COVID-19

Emily Haag — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 18:34:26 +0000

At a pivotal point in their nascent research careers, students need resources that are accessible, comprehensible, and detailed. This is especially true during the present era – a time coined the “Infodemic” for being flooded with biomedical research and data. Stony Brook University student Irene Abraham explains how tools like Outbreak.info can help students better understand COVID-19 and dig...

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Comparing Lineages: How Researchers in Germany use Outbreak.info to Investigate Variants

Emily Haag — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 23:23:00 +0000

As SARS-CoV-2 variants (mutated strains of the virus causing COVID-19) surface in different parts of the world, researchers rise to the challenge of examining tremendous amounts of new data and contextualizing it within what we already know about other strains. Over the past year, researchers around the world have been dedicated to surveilling SARS-CoV-2 as the virus mutates.

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A Look at New Variant of Concern B.1.617.2

Emily Haag — Fri, 21 May 2021 23:04:27 +0000

The B.1.617 variant was detected in October 2020 in Maharashtra, India. Fears that two mutations in the spike protein, L452R and E484Q, would make the variant resistant to antibodies led to widespread panic about this “double mutant.” The Mutation Reports and Location Tracker at Outbreak.info consolidate data and published research about this variant into one place for more complete analysis.

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The Snapshot of B.1.1.7 from Outbreak.info

Emily Haag — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 06:29:05 +0000

COVID-19 dominated the news cycle of 2020. SARS-CoV-2 variants took over news feeds in 2021. For the past year, researchers around the globe have been coming together to openly share data and resources, fighting the pandemic from a unified front. The global investigation effort requires constant update on the status of different emerging lineages and mutations, and this is a huge challenge.

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COVID-19 Mutations: Why are they happening and what does it mean for the pandemic?

Emily Haag — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 20:36:14 +0000

With coronavirus mutations overtaking the news cycle, fear and uncertainty are spreading as efficiently as the virus itself. Viruses are expected to evolve and mutate. Not all mutations are meaningful. Scientists have already recorded hundreds of mutations across thousands of coronavirus cases. Most mutations do not have a significant effect on infection severity or transmissibility.

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Tracking the New Strains of COVID-19

Emily Haag — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 19:38:24 +0000

dashboard for viewing daily reports. As concerns surrounding several COVID-19 variants have been developing, researchers around the world have shifted focus in an all-hands-on-deck, round-the-clock effort to uncover more about the mutations. All viruses undergo natural mutation. Scientists are investigating how SARS-CoV-2 mutates, how fast mutations happen, and how this will affect public health...

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COVID-19 Variants: Staying Updated as New Research Emerges

Emily Haag — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 20:56:13 +0000

Hundreds of thousands of open source COVID-19 publications, preprints, clinical trials, protocols, and other resources have been published in the past year. With a high volume of new journal articles and preprints emerging every day, trying to keep up with new research is overwhelming. Moreover, it is a tremendous undertaking to simply reduce new publications to a specific research field...

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