Investigative Economics
Investigative Economics
Podcast Episode 2: All Things Coronavirus
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Podcast Episode 2: All Things Coronavirus

Stories covered in this episode:

Investigative Economics
Quarantine Driving Down All Mortality Numbers
An April 10th New York Times story announced that deaths in New York City were double their expected total. An accompanying graphic showed the number of deaths in the month ending April 4th were at 9,780, far above any other recent peak of morbidity, dwarfing even September 11th…
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Investigative Economics
Deaths from Flu and Pneumonia Jumped Sharply In Recent Years
As the world determines how to approach the spread of the Coronavirus, the disease is regularly compared to seasonal influenza in terms of mortality rate and contagiousness. In a recent press conference, Nancy Messonnier Director of the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases compared the agency's resp…
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Investigative Economics
China Never Patented Remdesivir; Where the CDC and WHO Disagree on Asymptomatic Carriers
In February, the Wuhan Institute of Virology announced that it would patent the COVID-19 drug remdesivir, which was originally developed by the U.S. company Gilead Sciences as a treatment for Ebola. The institute had been studying the disease that was ravaging Wuhan province and they focused on two potential drugs that were “highly effective”: remdesivir…
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Investigative Economics
Incidence Rate of Coronavirus Holding Steady, Not Growing Exponentially
The total number of positive results for the COVID-19 has increased exponentially in the U.S., leading to numerous comparisons with countries like Italy and China that also saw huge growth in the numbers that tested positive for the virus. But while the total number of positive tests has increased in the last week, those positive results are likely drive…
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Investigative Economics
Mortality Estimates Now In Line With Average
A previous Investigative Economics story highlighted how Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates showed total mortality rate in 2020 being substantially far below recent averages even as thousands of deaths are attributed to the COVID-19 virus. The numbers were based on the…
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Investigative Economics
Vaccine Success Undercut By Low Power Trial Results
Two potential vaccines for the COVID-19 virus have been announced from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna pharmaceuticals with success rates of 95% and 90% respectively. For the Pfizer/BioNTech messenger RNA (mRNA) drug, BNT162b2, it was tested in an equal split, double-blinded trial, and 169 placebo recipients would test positive for COVID-19, whereas only 9 …
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Investigative Economics
Growth in Elderly Population Started Declining Before the Pandemic
Older populations, those 65 and older, have been the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with 74 percent of COVID deaths attributed to them since 2000 (over 880,000) according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). U.S. Census estimates for population show their numbers to have grown substantially less in 2020, which would be reasonable considering…
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Investigative Economics
Nursing Home Deaths Now Far Below Average
Nursing homes have been at the center of the COVID pandemic as the disease largely affects elderly populations. Since the end of May, over 65,000 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported from nursing homes in Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) estimates…
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Investigative Economics
Unanswered Questions from the COVID-19 Pandemic
As pandemic restrictions are being lifted across the U.S. and much of the economy returns to what it was, a number of questions remain unanswered about how the disease was spread and exactly what happened. Most recently, emails from director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci were released detailing his respon…
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Investigative Economics
Europe, Not the U.S., Leads in COVID Deaths Per Capita
While the United States has garnered attention for a growing number of COVID-19 cases, it’s Europe that is contending with the largest death rate from the disease. European countries have an average number of deaths per capita from the disease over twice as large as that of the Americas or any other region, particularly from Western and Southern Europe…
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Investigative Economics
'Breakthrough' COVID-19 Drug Remdesivir Also Has 'No Significant Clinical Benefits'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and lead member of the Trump Administration's White House Coronavirus Task Force, called a new drug developed by Gilead Science as a treatment for COVID-19 as having…
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