Category: My Work

  • Covid Update: 20 February

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    Brendan Barry
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    Another week, another snowstorm in the Northeast. This winter has been far busier than last, when Philadelphia saw no snow. Unfortunately, whilst people like me enjoy seeing the snow, it’s hampering with testing and vaccination. Last week we saw some middling signs of improvement, but perhaps partially exaggerated by the closures caused by the storm.…

  • Covid Update: 15 February

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week we discussed the potential impact of a major nor’easter that struck the East Coast and interrupted testing and vaccination operations in the states we cover: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois (affected by the storm as one of the components moved east across the Midwest). The possibility of an exaggerated downward trajectory…

  • Trading Andrew Benintendi

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday, one year to the day the Boston Red Sox traded Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Red Sox made another big trade, sending Andrew Benintendi, their starting left fielder, to the Kansas City Royals as part of another three-team trade—last year’s three-team part fell apart, but initially involved Boston receiving a quality…

  • Covid Update: 7 February

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    Brendan Barry
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    I missed last week’s posting on an update to Covid-19. Two weeks on from the last post, things in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois continue to improve, albeit with a few fits and starts. But the downward trend nonetheless can be seen in the new cases charts. Consider that in…

  • Covid-19 Update: 24 January

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week we saw some indications that the recent surge was beginning to ebb in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Illinois with the same in New Jersey, but to a slight degree less so. Only Virginia presented us with data that showed its surge continuing unabated. So this week we have some generally good news to look…

  • Covid-19 Update: 18 January

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week we saw that in the weeks after Christmas, new cases and deaths rebounded in the five states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois. The question was how bad would things continue to get? Would these rebounds sustain themselves? A week later we can see a glimmer of good news in that…

  • Impeachment 2: The Insurrection

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    Brendan Barry
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    Like many Americans I closely followed the outcome of yesterday’s historic vote by the House of Representatives to impeach President Trump for his incitement of an insurrection at the US Capitol in a failed coup attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Words I still never thought I’d write describing an American election. So at the…

  • Trump’s White Wall

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    Brendan Barry
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    I meant to publish this yesterday, but this piece also offers a reminder that the hardest part of a data-driven story is usually finding the data. I was unable to find a single source of data for all the numbers I needed by the time I switched on for work. And so this had to…

  • Covid-19 Update: 10 January

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    Brendan Barry
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    The last time we checked in on Covid-19 in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois, things were peaking across the five states. As I said then: If you look at the very tippy tip top of the curves in the other four states, we might just be seeing an inflection point.…

  • Covid-19 Update: 13 December

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    Brendan Barry
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    So as begin to head into winter, where are we at with the spread of Covid-19 in the five states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Illinois? Nowhere good. Let’s take a look. If you recall where we were at last week, also not great but better, cases had resumed rising post-Thanksgiving across the…