COVID Analysis

Covid Analysis and Updates

Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic I've provided analysis and interpretation of Covid metrics for the public, focusing on Indiana and Northwest Indiana. While I no longer use Twitter, I continue post updates both on The Region Economist blog and on Mastodon @pollak@mstdn.social.

Research on Covid and K-12 in-person instruction in Indiana

In 2022 I published an article with some amazing co-authors in the Journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on the effect of in-person instruction at K-12 schools in Indiana on community spread of Covid-19. In the article we found a measurable effect of the amount of in-person instruction (vs. e-learning) in school districts on county-level cases. More in-person instruction resulted in a greater number of cases in the county in the weeks that followed.

• Gabriel T Bosslet, Micah Pollak, Jeong Hoon Jang, Rebekah Roll, Mark Sperling, Babar Khan, The Effect of In-Person Primary and Secondary School Instruction on County-Level Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Spread in Indiana, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 74, Issue 1, 1 January 2022, Pages 17–23, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab306