Videos out!!! Watch the Covid-19 Measures Tracker Conference

Successful conference of worldwide data trackers

Admittedly, the title of the conference (or workshop and conference, as it is) was not the easiest one:

The “COVID-19 PHSMs (Public Health and Social Measures) Data Coverage Conference,” which was co-hosted by the Hub, assembled policy trackers from all over the globe to a workshop, which took place on February 10 and 11, 2021.

The idea of this meeting was to offer the many trackers in the world for the first time a platform “to network, exchange and share key experiences and takeaways, explore collaboration possibilities and reflect on lessons learned with data collection to respond to future pandemics,” as the Event Page explains.

About three weeks later, on March 3, a public online conference shared the lessons learned from a) the two-day workshop in Februar, and b) the whole COVID-19 pandemic, not to forget the expieriences of the data gathering efforts of thousands of people worldwide, with a wider audience.

This “public” part of the PHSMs Data Coverage Conference was recorded. The videos are out now on Youtube—thank you, CoronaNet, for uploading them!—and can also be seen here:

Video 1: The main sessions

The first part of the main session—about 90 minutes long—provides an overview of the key takeaways from the workshop, stakeholder expectations from PHSM trackers, and the results of the collaboration opportunities conducted in the weeks between workshop and conference.

Moderators were Luca Messerschmidt from CoronaNet—the worlds largest tracker and the initiator of the PHSMs Conference—and Alex John Zapf from co-host HIT-Covid, the database of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  

The video continues (starting around 1:30) with the last session of the conference which followed the separate presentations in Room 1, 2 and 3.

Room 1: Applications of PHSM Tracker Data

The abundance of COVID-19 PHSM tracker data provides exciting opportunities for its use in research, health policy, and more.

Trackers present visualizations of current data collection efforts that can be used to inform pandemic control policies and public health measures.

Luca Messerschmidt moderates, speakers are CSH’s Peter Klimek and Paolo Giudici (Professor of Statistics and Financial Data Science, University of Pavia).

Room 2: Health Equity & Human Rights

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities and human rights violations all around the world.

The video provides an overview of the health inequities across race, ethnicities, geography, gender, age, socioeconomic status etc. in COVID-19 outcomes, testing, policy, and especially in data. We discuss the importance of promoting health equity and human rights in this pandemic through PHSM data collection.

Moderated by Sophia Zweig, speakers are Oluwaseun O. Falade-Nwulia (Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) and Sabrina Epstein (Disability Health Research Center, Johns Hopkins University). 

Room 3: Tracking COVID-19 Vaccination PHSMs

One of the most pressing challenges in the pandemic is the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines: their efficacy, distribution, administration, manufacturing, financing, and more.

This third breakout session discusses how PHSM trackers can collect data on vaccine-related policies and programs, specifically the vaccination policy data needs.

Moderator was Alex John Zapf, the speaker was Bonnielin Swenor (Director, Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center).