Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — what are the issues around the two vaccines that India has approved?
On January 3, the Indian regulator approved two vaccines for use in India — the Oxford/ Astra Zeneca/ Serum Institute vaccine called Covishield, and the Bharat Biotech/ ICMR vaccine called Covaxin. There have been some questions around both vaccines — less about the science, and more about the approval process — and I thought it was…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — what’s going wrong with our vaccine development process?
As regular listeners might have noticed, I took a short break, and one of the things I’ve realised on my return is how squarely the conversation around covid has moved into the vaccine phase. Globally there are two other stories that matter too — one is around new variants, and the other…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this question — what does political life look like in a pandemic?
It’s Day 326 of the novel coronavirus epidemic in India, and we are reporting 10,054,946 confirmed cases with 145,804 deaths. One of the things that I’ve been thinking about, especially as more states gear up for elections next year, is how political life in India has changed in the pandemic. …
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — how does a modeller feel looking back at the early days of the pandemic now?
Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee’s bio is here.
Her Twitter is here.
Her group’s first modelling estimates for India are here.
The article I wrote for The Print around it is here.
An earlier episode on modelling with Prof. Gautam Menon is here.
I thank Dr Mukherjee for joining me. This episode was edited by Anand Krishnamoorthi. On the next episode — a new question.
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one: are we missing the story of whom covid has affected the worst?
It’s Day 346 of the novel coronavirus epidemic in India, and we are reporting 9,762,245 cases with 141,735 deaths. One of the things that I’ve been trying to understand lately is what we can say about the communities who have been affected thus far, and what that says about…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — how do we read between the lines of sero-surveys?
Prof. Sandeep Juneja’s bio is here.
The Mumbai sero-survey’s first round is here.
Round II is here.
So just to sum up: the Mumbai sero-survey showed high prevalence in the first round, but real prevalence was probably even higher. The second round showed what appeared to be a decline in slums…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — where does the virus go from here?
Dr Manoj Murhekar is the director of the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai.
The ICMR’s first sero-survey is here.
Their second sero-survey’s key findings are here.
The Mumbai sero-survey’s first round is here.
The second round is here.
As Dr Murhekar says, however, he does not expect these next surges or waves —…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — can citizen oversight help keep the government’s covid numbers honest?
My reporting for IndiaSpend on missing deaths in India’s count is here.
Here’s reporting from Arunabh Saikia on Assam that found similarly.
Dr Arun N Madhavan is on Twitter here.
You can see the spreadsheet he references here.
By building a narrative that the state that reports the most numbers…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — why exactly did India’s pandemic peak and then decline in mid-September?
Gautam Menon’s bio is here and here.
His Twitter is here.
A recent article by Prof Menon for The Hindu on the Indian ‘supermodel’ is here.
His article for The Wire about whether the curve is flattening is here.
I found his explanation terrific — there are things that…
Hello and welcome to The Moving Curve. I’m Rukmini, a data journalist based in Chennai. Two nights a week on this mini-cast, I consider one question around the novel coronavirus epidemic in India. Tonight I’m considering this one — what is it like to lose someone to covid?
Shreya Raman’s work at IndiaSpend is here.
It’s hard to know what to say, what I can say that can make any of this terrible pain make sense. I’d like to thank Shreya for speaking to me, and my admiration for her only grows.
Thank you for listening. This episode was edited by Anand Krishnamoorthi. On the next episode — a new question.
Rukmini S
I am a data journalist based in Chennai, India.
