Following the first week of October, educators without their first dose of the vaccine would be forbidden from entering their respective school buildings, instead being placed on unpaid leave. While this policy initially posed the threat of staffing shortages, the mayor quickly assured the general public that the city was prepared to call upon their numerous substitute professionals to fill in any temporary vacancies.

“We have a lot of talented young people who are ready to take those jobs,” DeBlasio noted to The Times.

With such a weighted policy being promptly instituted and back-up options already in place, teachers were left faced with an ultimatum: get vaccinated or lose their jobs.

As a result, vaccine mandates have continued to be enshrouded in a heat of controversy. While some applaud the mayor for taking the necessary steps to protect New York citizens, others critique the policies that “infringe on their personal freedom.”

It is important that despite these heavily-polarized discussions, the public recognizes the importance of the vaccine mandates and the effect to which they’re transforming our country’s fight against COVID-19. In a nation with over 45 million cases of the virus contracted across 50 states, individuals must come to recognize that in desperate times, desperate measures must inevitably be taken. Personal freedom does not take precedence over public safety.

Hesitancies to Receive COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines

According to the interactive COVID-19 vaccine tracker updated by the Mayo Clinic, the percentages of total Americans vaccinated across the nation are far from settling. While certain states like New York, California, and New Mexico are home to the greatest number of vaccinated citizens (roughly 65%), other states like Wyoming, Alabama, and West Virginia teeter on the edge of 40%.

Several factors prevent the majority of Americans from getting vaccinated. Whether it be vaccine inaccessibility, medical mistrust, or circulating media misinformation, there are numerous barriers in play that continue to exacerbate rising COVID-19 cases. Moreover, with the political divide between Democrat and Republican parties continuing to deepen, more nuanced factors– resulting from extreme political influence — have contributed to the vaccine phenomenon.

“There may be a modest shift of a few points in the pro-vaccine direction, but the hardcore vaccine resistant probably are not going to shift very much,” says David Lazer, professor of political science and computer sciences at Northeastern University. “If you don’t trust the FDA, and then the FDA says ‘OK, all is good now,’ we probably won’t see dramatic changes,” he notes.

Professor Lazer remains hopeful that companies will make strides in future vaccine distribution, but “that’s not going to happen within months, unfortunately,” he says.

The point is, as long as Americans continue to be swayed by anti-vaccination propaganda, as long as media misinformation continues to circulate across social media, as long as the systemic barriers to vaccines accessibility continue to remain prevalent, the United States’ fight against COVID-19 will hit a stagnation.

It is time that state governments takes matters into their own hands.

Teacher Vaccine Mandates Promise to Keep New York Safe

Arguably, schools are one of the likeliest places for COVID-19 cases to be contracted. In New York City’s large public high schools, with thousands of students gathered in overcrowded classrooms, hallways, and one-way staircases, rising transmission rates of the virus remain a waning threat.

While DeBlasio cannot issue vaccine mandates for all New York City students, many of whom are under-age and much less likely to be immunocompromised than their older counterparts, the mayor can ensure that teaching faculty are effectively protected.

“Anyone who’s eligible for a vaccine, if you want to be around children, you’ve got to do whatever you can to protect them. And if you’re eligible to get vaccinated, get vaccinated,” urges Dr. Anthony Fauci, who believes teacher vaccinations are critical now more than ever. More than just a threat to faculty themselves, COVID-19 can easily be brought home with students: entering households and spreading to older family members. Teacher vaccine mandates promise to protect the students (and their loved ones) from the risks posed by the virus.

Research continues to validate the large role that educators play in school COVID-19 transmission rates. In a recent study cited by the CDC, researchers surveyed elementary schools in Georgia– where mask use and social distancing was said to be inadequate. The investigation, which involved over 2,600 students and 700 staff members, resulted in nine clusters of COVID-19 cases across six elementary schools. Two of the nine clusters involved teacher-to-teacher transmission, followed by teacher-to-student transmission in classrooms. In total, transmission from teachers resulted in about half of 31 school-related cases (Reuters).

“These findings suggests that educators can play an important role in in-school transmission and that in-school transmission can occur when physical distancing and mask compliance are not optimal,” the report detailed.

Evidently, teacher vaccine mandates have a significant role in curbing the spread of COVID-19. While many educators prefer to leave the vaccination choice in their own hands, mandates promise that all faculty are held accountable for their actions. As a result, educators have increased economic incentive to not just protect themselves, but also protect the millions of students’ lives they’re inherently putting at risk.

How New York is a Stepping Stone for the Rest of the Nation

As the largest city in the United States (with a population of over eight billion individuals), New York promises to be the gateway to nationwide vaccination mandates.

With the threat of the rising Delta Variant, alongside the sudden shift back to in-person learning, schools are a hub for COVID-19 transmission. DeBlasio’s state policy, while a source of fervent public controversy, places the safety and health of families over individualized choice.

Notably, the pushback in New York City against teacher vaccine mandates is a fraction of the dispute state governments would witness in more right-wing states: whether it be Arkansas, Montana or South Carolina. However, as the United States continues to seek solutions to ameliorate the pandemic crisis, New York can serve as a working role model to the rest of the nation: championing a system where teachers, students, and families are all protected.

Instituting teacher vaccine mandates is the most necessary next step in our long-term fight against COVID-19.

Teacher Vaccine Mandates Have Transformed The Fight Against COVID-19 was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Until only very recently in the 1960s did the United States adopt the integrated school system that is devoid of the segregation that was rampant across a nation once shielded behind the archaic guise of “Separate but Equal”. However, even with desegregation, the Civil Rights Movement, and other social justice reforms, there are grave inequalities that hamper the education and future of marginalized children. Communities with the majority of the population being people of color are statistically prone to having underfunded school districts and thus are less likely to have the infrastructure and resources that their more affluent counterparts receive. These underfunded school districts are also less likely to have teachers with masters and upper-level degrees, which has been touted as one of the most important signifiers in future student success (Darling-Hammond, Brookings, 1998).

These issues grew to extremes during the COVID-19 pandemic as schools were put under extreme pressure to take public health inequity and access to education into account. Schools across the country closed for in-person lessons in an attempt to “flatten the curve” and keep the health of children and the community safe. Flattening the curve is the idea that decreasing the prevalence of COVID-19 cases through the use of public health strategies like social distancing and wearing masks will ensure the healthcare system does not become overwhelmed causing unnecessary loss of life (Gavin, Michigan Health 2020).

This decision, while essential for public health, created a socioeconomic educational gap throughout schools and classrooms. Many schools were ill-prepared for this remote transition, and this was unevenly felt by marginalized communities. Remote learning necessitated children having working and reliable internet access, alongside a functioning device to allow them to attend class and regularly complete assignments. According to researchers at the Harvard Gazette, Black and Hispanic children were 1.3 to 1.4 times more likely to not have either of these requirements — putting them at a major disadvantage (Simon, The Harvard Gazette, 2021). This, coupled with the likelihood that families of color were more likely to continue in-person work, created an environment that made learning an improbable feat for many families. People of color were more likely to work blue-collar jobs like retail, food service, utilities, agriculture, and hospitality which were significantly more likely to continue with in-person responsibilities (Gould & Shierholz, EPI, 2020). These careers had very little opportunity to work from home compared with their white-collar counterparts and thus put these workers at an increased risk of COVID-19 exposure.

During this time, schools with primary students of color saw a drop in test scores due to a lack of internet connection, devices, and live teachers (Dorn., et al., McKinsey, 2020). These issues create major gaps in future student success; before the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown occurred, the number of black and Latinx students going to college was the highest it had ever been (Marcus, Wired, 2020). Unfortunately, once again, a lack of resources and socioeconomic disruptions put these groups of students at higher risk of dropping out and deciding not to pursue higher education.

Numerous organizations and agencies have realized these disproportionate issues and have tried to remedy them by pushing for more equal access to services. For example, The Emergency Broadband Benefit program allows for eligible low-income families to receive discounted monthly wifi; the program was set up in the aftermath of the pandemic to assist with remote work and school (FCC, 2021). There are greater issues brought up regarding the extreme lack of nationwide broadband access — especially in low-income and communities of color. Indigenous communities were particularly impacted by the move to remote work/learning, as many communities lacked the proper broadband infrastructure to receive working internet (Edgerton et al., Learning Policy Institute, 2021). The push for internet access to be deemed a necessity instead of luxury has been at an all-time high, and marginalized communities remain hopeful for future expansive legislative actions.

The issue of remote learning has also taken a large toll on parents and guardians. They are now faced with working full time from their homes, while simultaneously managing their children during school hours. Moreover, remote learning also meant that in-person working families had to find alternatives to school to care for their children during working hours. These work-life balances kept families teetering on the precipice of socioeconomic turmoil (Leonhardt, CNBC, 2020).

Families are now caught in a juggling act of health, time, and work issues — which puts extreme pressure on guardians as well as children: who no longer have the stability that once came with in-person schooling.

School closures have also created a nutritional crisis for low-income and families of color. Many eligible children across the country are given access to free school meals for breakfast and lunch. Remote learning has meant that students who would normally receive two free meals a day are left to go hungry without this social safety net (Turner, npr, 2020). As parents continue to return to work, they lack the time and/or resources to provide the well-balanced meals that are needed for child development and health. Low socioeconomic communities are most at risk of these challenges and mean it’s more likely for them to suffer dietary and nutritional issues which can have long-term negative health outcomes. Local programs were created to address this crisis as organizations rallied to dispense out school lunches to food-insecure individuals regardless of remote learning (Turner, npr, 2020).

Although the move to remote learning has been proven to be the most beneficial way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is not without its drawbacks. The brunt of the issues associated with the pandemic is disproportionately felt by marginalized communities: low-income and communities of color. The exacerbation of socioeconomic disparities created by the COVID-19 has and will continue to leave a mark on the American school system. The pandemic has been able to shed light on the disparities seen across the American school system, and without major legislation and organization, these inequalities will continue to snowball.

Fundamental changes must occur across the board to mend the inequities seen across the school system, in classrooms, and in students’ own homes.

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Socioeconomic Disparities in K-12 Education was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

COVID-19, the pandemic that was infamously discovered in 2019, has caused an unimaginable loss of human life worldwide. With year-long nationwide lockdowns leading to vast social and economic disruptions, COVID-19 has transformed human life in a myriad of ways.

While all demographic groups have been impacted severely, poorer and developing nations like India particularly underwent a never-before-experienced crisis: disproportionate to the rest of the world. India battled against the pandemic with ill-equipped health infrastructure, a declining GDP, overpopulation, and millions of minimum-wage migrant workers. What started with 3 cases of COVID-19 infection in January 2020 amassed to a total of 32.2 million by 17 August 2021.

What percentage of these deaths were due to a lack of healthcare resources? Why did so many migrant workers lose their jobs during the pandemic? Does India have enough vaccine doses available yet? Through insights from official open-source data, Project India sought to answer important questions like these.

Impact of Strained Indian Healthcare System on Deaths Due to COVID-19:

India, the world’s second-largest populated country, has been grievously affected by the COVID-19 due to the lethal combination of unmanageable patient loads and lack of healthcare resources — such as oxygen, hospital beds, and ventilators — especially during the second wave of COVID-19 in 2021.

Project India analyzed the data on‌ deaths‌ ‌caused by the lack‌ ‌of oxygen ‌in‌ ‌hospitals‌ ‌during‌ ‌the‌ ‌second‌ ‌wave‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌Covid-19‌ ‌pandemic‌. The‌ ‌deaths‌ ‌recorded‌ ‌are‌ ‌based‌ ‌upon ‌reports‌ ‌from‌ ‌newspapers‌ ‌and‌ ‌news‌ ‌media‌ ‌(in‌ ‌English‌ ‌and‌ ‌regional‌ ‌languages), social media, and‌ ‌networks‌ ‌of‌ ‌volunteers‌ ‌working‌ ‌directly on‌ ‌the‌ ‌ground.‌

Notably, with hospitals quickly reaching their maximum capacity during the second wave, healthcare providers faced a new challenge: lack of oxygen. With oxygen playing a significant role in treating patients, the death rate exponentially began to increase. This visualization shows that the deaths due to oxygen shortage in Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu were greater than 50, significantly exceeding other regions. These cities are densely populated, which could explain a higher death rate, as a greater number of people are admitted to hospitals.

Project India also analyzed the number of deaths from April 5 to May 18. During this time, oxygen resources were extremely rare. As shown in the visualization, there were a total of 619 over the span of 43 days. April 23rd had the highest death count, with a total of 60.

As seen from Project India’s research, the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted upon society unimaginable consequences, leaving India with a shortage of a necessary healthcare resources to the survival of human life. In light of these findings, this pandemic has shown us a need for change. The Center for Global Development has suggested that India restructure its model of medical oxygen supply, from the hospital and government’s end. While recovering from this pandemic, it is the hope that India can learn from this oxygen shortage and implement the changes necessary to avoid it in the future.

COVID-19 in India was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In order to best protect us against threats like the Delta variant, hospitals across the United States — thanks to our frontline workers and advanced technology — are currently offering COVID-19 vaccines. With COVID-19 rates drastically increasing on a daily basis, it is vital to understand how this nifty piece of biotechnology works and will protect us against the virus.

According to a private research university in Massachusetts, Tufts University, a vaccine is a component or form of the virus that enables the body to create antibodies that can be used to kill off the infection in the event that the body is actually exposed to the virus (Tufts). In other words, a vaccine is a “message” that tells the human body what a specific pathogen looks like. We can think of vaccines as little helpers that “hang criminal posters” inside the human body, enabling the immune system to remember what a specific pathogen looks like to prepare in advance.

Now, how exactly do vaccines prompt an immune response within the body? How do they mitigate the effects of the virus? And, why are they important?

Research by The New York Times states that “vaccines work by prompting the body to develop antibodies, which neutralize the virus by binding to it in a specific way.” This propels our immune system to become prepared if we’re exposed to the actual virus so that if this does happen, an individual’s antibodies kick into action and begin to search the body for antigens. After the antibodies locate the antigens, they halt the antigens’ progress and prevent the spread of germs from initiating any harm. The antibodies then signal our immune cells to get rid of the germs and remove them from our bodies.

Viruses are constantly mutating. In fact, Apoorva Mandavilli, an American journalist who has studied at the University of New York, recently published a research paper cautioning the public that “a new form of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in New York City, and [that] it carries a worrisome mutation the may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines.” (The New York Times). When a virus mutates, scientists have to alter vaccines to fit the needs of the mutations; this often involves a lengthy and arduous process of trials.

Given that the Delta variant is a mutation of SARS-CoV-2 that alters the furin cleavage site, scientists must create a new vaccine that will be able to mitigate, if not, prevent the virus from greatly impacting humans (Nature). For example, the flu is constantly mutating, leaving several scientists to develop new vaccines almost every year!

Vaccines have drastically impacted the lives of many people and have helped prevent the spread of contagious diseases, most of which have stimulated detrimental effects upon individuals. Given the alarming coronavirus pandemic and the rising death toll, the COVID-19 vaccine may be our only source of hope.

As a network of avid researchers, publishers, and students at the Coronavirus Visualization Team at Harvard University, we encourage you to get vaccinated and stay safe!

Works Cited:

Lash, Nathaniel, and Tala Schlossberg. The Coronavirus Is Mutating. What Does That Mean for a Vaccine? The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/16/opinion/coronavirus-mutations-vaccine-covid.html?searchResultPosition=3.

“A New Coronavirus Variant Is Spreading in New York, Researchers Report.” The New York Times, 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/health/coronavirus-variant-nyc.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.

“What Are Viruses and How Do They Work?” Tufts Now, 3 Apr. 2020, now.tufts.edu/articles/what-are-viruses-and-how-do-they-work. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.

Nature Editorial. “The Mutation That Helps Delta Spread like Wildfire.” Nature, 2021, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02275-2?error=cookies_not_supported&code=27cda53b-f158-4d9a-abfc-192e2b40c852#:%7E:text=Delta%20wasn’t%20the%20first,been%20especially%20profound%20in%20Delta.

Fly Me to The Immune! was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

During these early stages, numerous companies were trying to find ways for their employees to continue doing their work without having to visit the office in person. Many found the solution to be remote work, in which employees could do their daily office routine from the comfort of their living rooms.

Post-Pandemic Remote Work

With many companies starting to use alternative methods of communication to get their remote work done, tools like Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, and Discord allowed for an easier transition from in-person to online networking. As COVID-19 restrictions continued to ease over the coming months, alongside initial vaccine rollouts, many offices adamantly remained closed and/or limited their employee capacity. These workers could simply perform their tasks remotely.

However, over time, after successful distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines, companies began to open up their offices to in-person work, and many places decided to adopt a flexible remote/in-person schedule. This meant that employees who wished to work remotely could continue doing so post-pandemic. Large companies like Google, Dropbox, Spotify, Ford, Microsoft, and Slack all announced fully remote or flexible options for their remote-eligible employees (Forbes, Stoller, 2021). A mixture of increased productivity, retention, and profitability began driving large companies to keep remote/flexible work policies (Forbes, Farrer, 2020).

A significant majority of employees favor this new work freedom and flexibility. Remote work has allowed for a more diverse pool of applicants no longer restricted to geographic location, has enabled people to have more time for family, and has cut down on long commutes with expensive gasoline prices (Vox, Molla, 2021).

Remote Work and De-Urbanization

When the pandemic initially hit, people living in urban areas began to look elsewhere to work: primarily suburbs. As more companies move toward flexible/remote work, people are no longer constrained to live close to the city where their companies are headquartered.

With this new freedom, people have begun looking for areas where the cost of living is significantly cheaper than their larger metropolitan areas counterparts. Areas like New York City, Silicon Valley, The Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Jose, and other expensive cities where tech companies are usually housed are seeing a migration of people headed towards cheaper suburban areas (Reuters, Lee, 2020). As a result, real estate sites are experiencing more online traffic as realtors are beginning to see shifts away from urban areas: facilitating a suburban boom (Forbes, Richardson, 2020).

Most people who worked in these large metropolitan areas didn’t cross country but instead moved to local suburbs surrounding their former cities (Bloomberg et al, 2021). Although cities saw a greater percentage of people leave than move in, most of the movers who left didn’t go too far. The Sun Belt states — specifically Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia — saw an influx of people who wanted the feel of a city without the extreme price tag usually associated with them (NBC, Popken, 2020).

Remote Work and the Housing-Market

As more city-dwellers continue to look for cheaper places to live in the suburbs, the cost of buying a house has begun to skyrocket. The pandemic has created a situation where suburbanites are unwilling to sell their homes while many urbanites are rushing to look for real estate. Mortgage rates have reached an all-time low while the cost of labor to build new homes rises (due to the pandemic): surging the net cost and demand of real estate (Vox, Demsas, 2021).

The Future of Remote-Work

The rise of remote work has now created a generation of people no longer constrained to their company’s location. As large companies continue to allow for more flexible work environments, more people are allowed to live and work in areas that would otherwise have been inconvenient and inaccessible.

Notably, this travel privilege is not something that is being felt equally. Many companies have considered cutting the salaries of their remote workers who are leaving to areas with lower costs of living, incentivizing them to stay in select geographic locations (Insider, Jones, 2021).

Moreover, throughout the pandemic, people of color and low-income individuals have had to disproportionately work through quarantine or lose their jobs because the option of remote work was unavailable to them (EPI, Gould & Shierholz, 2020). Individuals who work in retail, food industry, shipping, and hospitality are significantly less likely to be able to work remotely, and thus they have had to continue showing up to work in-person: greatly increasing their chance of infection compared to their remote-working counterparts (WBUR, Parr, 2020).

The pandemic has once again highlighted a socioeconomic disparity, where only those who have had the privilege to work remotely are able to leave densely packed urban areas. Meanwhile, people of color and low-income individuals have had to stay in more hazardous public health situations.

The pandemic continues to shape company policies regarding telework, as the discussion can be approached from multiple angles and perspectives. Before the pandemic, working from home may have been seen as a futuristic development to imagine. However, with the widespread permanent use of telecommunication services and digital tools, remote work has rapidly hit corporate industries in a short amount of time, and it looks like it’s here to stay.

We, at the Coronavirus Visualization Team, are one of the numerous remote opportunities that have sprouted from the pandemic’s remote work. The advancement of telecommunication technologies, like Slack, has allowed for expansive global interaction that links our like-minded and passionate members together: regardless of timezone or geography.

What Remote Work Means for the Future of Urbanization was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tails Pineda is a high school graduate from Honduras, who was recently promoted to the Director of Social Media at the Coronavirus Visualization Team. Pineda graduated high school in 2019, and she hopes to major in International Business & Trade as she prepares to attend university.

Pineda has been a member of the CVT for roughly five months, and she has been instrumental in helping to transform our organization’s media footprint. From idealizing workflows to building up a functional team system to creating an organized structure for files and tools, Pineda directs the CVT Social Media team with the motto of “ideation to creation.” The work that she regularly fulfills helps keep members accountable and on top of their assigned responsibilities — giving life to the CVT’s social media presence.

Together with the Co-Executive Director, Gabrielle Wong, Pineda is helping to build up a new division for the CVT’s Social Media Team besides content creation, which is outreach and engagement. The purpose of this is to improve CVT’s social media following, reach, and potential impact by growing a community of like-minded organizations.

Pineda joined the CVT because she wanted to participate in Erevna’s past event, the MLK Jr Tutorthon, as a fellow in January 2021. After having the opportunity to interact and collaborate directly with the CVT, she appreciated the “vibe and joy of work” prevalent amongst the organization, and she sought to establish a more permanent role within the team.

When asked about her favorite part about working at the CVT, Pineda named two keywords: community and opportunity.

“The CVT has just such a wide environment for growth and expansion both in terms of creating relationships with all the wonderful members across it, and contributing to the projects and impactful work each member immerses themselves with,” exclaims Pineda.

From her time as the Director of Social Media, Pineda has picked up numerous skills that she is excited to continue growing over the course of the upcoming months, such as working with teammates across several time zones, improving in time management and priority scheduling, planning content for social media, optimizing user engagement across time slots, and learning how to ensure a healthy and efficient flow between team members.

“I am grateful that I have been able to put these skills into practice, and more importantly, the chance to continue growing my leadership and workflow system skills,” Pineda notes.

Outside of the Coronavirus Visualization Team, Pineda has numerous outside hobbies that fill her busy days.

She is currently a startup entrepreneur in the process of developing her own brand, Tails’ Blog, which aims to support young women to gracefully achieve life balance and become the best version of themselves. Check out her thriving Youtube channel below!

Tails

To grow her business skills, Pineda has also been immersing herself in HarvardX courses under the topics of Economics, Business, and Entrepreneurship. These are helping her blossom both in her executive role at the CVT and in the development of her own brand.

Pineda is also incredibly dedicated to community service, and in her free time, she volunteers at eBookBuddy, an organization focused on teaching education and fostering close relationships with kids. Pineda joined to do reading sessions in 2020, and just a couple of months ago, she was able to bring the program to Honduras as a global Ambassador & Coordinator. She is excited to continue collaborating to share this joyful program with Honduras kids and expanding it to more Latin-American countries!

Overall, Pineda is extremely grateful for the time quarantine has given her to grow her own brand and focus on personal development, spiritual growth, and mindset principles. It has also given her more time to bond with her friends and family, cook new interesting dishes, and dive into bullet journaling.

If you need advice on anything from female entrepreneurship to local Honduras cuisine, feel free to reach out to Tails Pineda at tails.ph1@gmail.com.

Meet Tails Pineda: Director of Social Media at the CVT was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alagappan Sellappan lives in the Greater Richmond Region of Virginia as a rising senior at Henrico High School, where he is on track to graduate from the International Baccalaureate Program. Sellappan has been a member of the Coronavirus Visualization Team for eight months, and he currently fulfills his role as the Director of Engineering and Development.

As part of his executive responsibilities, Sellappan manages the CVT GitHub workspace that consists of over 20 repositories, where he utilizes web development technologies like HTML, CSS, NodeJS, and GatsbyJS. Sellappan also helps to guide CVT project teams in using data science tools: specifically Python and Tableau.

After the onset of the pandemic, Sellappan was drawn to the mission of the CVT, and he sought to make a difference in combatting the infodemic.

“As I was looking for a space to contribute to spread awareness or help during the COVID-19 Pandemic, I came across CVT and applied to be a part of the research team,” notes Sellappan. “With my passion to help grow the organization, I was promoted to the Director of Engineering/Development role. As the state of the pandemic is brightening up, the projects that we are focusing on are now post-COVID and other fundamental health issues in our society, and I get a chance to work on them along with the other researchers.”

Sellappan’s work in the CVT has been essential to the efficiency and functionality of our organization’s tech platforms, and he further grows his skillsets with each consecutive day. His favorite part about working with the CVT is the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction he gets from contributing to a greater cause, while guiding others on the path of mastering new technologies.

Through his work, Sellappan has learned invaluable skills from the other members in this team, and he cites time management as his biggest asset.

“I strongly believe my time management skills have significantly improved due to the amount of work I am involved in,” notes Sellappan. “With this skill that is in the developmental stages, I can use this in my higher education and career opportunities which can allow me to get some personal time to spend with family and friends.”

Outside of CVT, Sellappan is involved with many other extracurricular pursuits growing his skillset and interests.

He is currently serving as a student researcher at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Engineering. Recently, Sellappan presented a prototype version of his project to the President of the University and Former Governor of Virginia, Governor McAuliffe, as well as the current Mayor of Richmond, Mayor Stoney.

Sellappan was formally recognized for the work he’s done, and he is excited to continue researching at Virginia Commonwealth University over the upcoming months.

College of Engineering | Virginia Commonwealth University

When he’s not busy presenting famous research, Sellappan can be found catching up on his favorite novel or immersing himself in his culture by taking carnatic music classes.

Overall, Sellappan is a valuable asset to the CVT executive board, and he continues to direct CVT data science initiatives with expertise, intellectual passion, and profound insight.

Email him at s.alagappan529@gmail.com if you want to discuss anything from Python to carnatic music!

Meet Alagappan Sellappan- Director of Engineering/Development at the CVT was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It was an auspicious start to the year 2020. The streets of America were buzzing in the vibrant excitement of the new year. Yet, within the ensuing months, these streets were abandoned, left only with the presence of nature to satisfy their loneliness. Needless to say, not a single soul was aware of what was to come in the near future, for there was not the slightest warning of the arrival of the infamous coronavirus. Indeed, within weeks, the pandemic notoriously made its way to the headlines of newspapers, and countless grieving family members were left behind in its trail.

Life would never return to a sense of normalcy

Fast-forward a year later, and the pandemic is finally being combatted through the distribution of FDA-approved vaccines (Acquah 2021). While these efforts awaken America with hope, much still remains elusive about the nation’s recovery from the pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccines

What They Exactly Are and How They Work

To understand the science behind vaccines, in particular the COVID-19 vaccines, we must first remind ourselves of a few terms: pathogens, antibodies, and spike proteins.

Pathogens: A pathogen is an organism (living or dead) that causes disease. Pathogens are “widely diverse and comprise viruses and bacteria as well as unicellular and multicellular eukaryotes” (NCBI 2017).

Antibodies: Antibodies are proteins that are created by the immune system that help us fight off infections or diseases created by the pathogens themselves (CDC 2021). Antibodies are specific to certain pathogens, meaning that one antibody can not be used to attack several different types of infections.

Spike Proteins: Spike proteins are what allow pathogens, in particular viruses, to cause infections. For a virus to inject its DNA material into a cell, it first needs “access”: that is, its spike protein must fit exactly into the cell’s receptor protein. You can think of the cell’s receptor protein as a lock and the virus’s spike protein as a key. Therefore, the virus’s spike protein must fit exactly into the receptor protein for it to inject its DNA into the cell.

To understand vaccines, we must first consider their purpose: vaccines do not make an individual immune to a certain pathogen; rather they prepare one to fight off a pathogen (should they get infected) and mitigate the severity of the symptoms associated with the pathogen. When the body is “exposed to a pathogen for the first time, it takes time to produce antibodies” to target the pathogen (WHO, 2020). During this time, one can become ill and experience symptoms of the infection.

Vaccines against a certain pathogen do not contain the pathogen itself, but rather a weakened or dead form of the pathogen in order to prevent the patient from becoming sick. Once the weakened or dead form of the pathogen is injected into the patient’s body, the patient’s antibodies are activated. Since the same pathogen was introduced to the body, just in a weakened form, individuals still have antibodies that will protect them should they encounter the actual pathogen. Therefore, when one gets infected by a pathogen, its body doesn’t have to wait to produce antibodies, and there is no time for the symptoms to be manifested (CDC, 2021).

The COVID-19 vaccine follows exactly this process; however, instead of introducing a weakened or dead form of the COVID-19 virus, only a part of the virus is introduced, the spike protein. Once the spike protein is introduced into the body, antibodies against it are developed.

Understanding this science is essential for society to recognize the importance and efficacy of vaccines.

The Status Quo

The United States’ Progress Against The Pandemic As Of Present Day

Vaccine Inaccessibility

After months of development, vaccines are finally being distributed across the United States; however, many regions still remain forgotten. The Vaccines Project, as part of the Coronavirus Visualization Team, has analyzed this issue to a greater extent. Through their analysis, several vulnerable ZIP Codes in the United States have been identified, prompting a greater need for policymakers to take action. Ultimately, vaccine inaccessibility is a major impediment that needs to be combatted through the mobilization of vaccines and widespread awareness.

Demographic Correlations With Vaccine Accessibility

Further exacerbating the issue around vaccine inaccessibility is its correlation with certain demographic compositions. Indeed, according to an article written by the NPR, “Black and Latino people [across the country] consistently receive a smaller share of vaccine doses than they represent in overall population, COVID-19 cases and deaths” (Feldman, 2021). While such an issue remains yet to be eradicated, certain actionable items are slowly being developed, such as the construction of vaccination sites in underserved areas as well as the “[launching] of vaccination communication campaigns, often with a focus on reaching people of color” (KFF, 2021).

Vaccine Hesitancy

Coupled with vaccine inaccessibility in the United States is vaccine hesitancy: another impediment that is hindering America’s progress toward achieving complete immunity. Though vaccine hesitancy has recently declined, roughly “30% of the adult population in the United States” still remains unvaccinated. For a breakdown of vaccine hesitancy across U.S. states, you may visit the following website:

Vaccine Hesitancy for COVID-19

The causes of vaccine hesitancy in the United States can be attributed to several factors, some of which include vaccine misinformation and medical mistrust, as well as religious and philosophical exemptions (AJMC, 2021). Indeed, many individuals across the United States choose to be unvaccinated due to their religious and moral beliefs that they value. While such a cause may be valid, many states are starting to remove religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions — especially taking into account the newly-emerging Delta-variant and its profound symptoms.

In addition, misinformation — such as the beliefs that vaccines are unnecessary for young individuals, vaccines can affect one’s DNA, or that individuals do not need to get vaccinated after having COVID-19 — continue to dissuade numerous individual across the U.S from taking vaccines.

However, as false information regarding the development and progress of vaccines spreads, many efforts are simultaneously being undertaken to combat this issue. These efforts include vaccine communication campaigns, as well as information disseminated by the U.S. government. If you’d like to learn more about vaccine hesitancy and the means by which it can be addressed, feel free to check out this video created by world-renowned professors and scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:

The Future

While misinformation, medical mistrust, and vaccine hesitancy continue to plague the United State’s recovery from the pandemic, several initiatives are being taken, and the Coronavirus Visualization Team is one of them.

Founded on April 5th of 2020 by Lucas Chu, a student at Harvard University, the Coronavirus Visualization Team was created to answer research questions about the pandemic and relay this information to others in an accessible, understandable, and informative manner. Ultimately, at CVT, our mission is to combat misinformation surrounding this current pandemic by spreading active awareness and informing policymakers about key issues.

Through several projects, such as the Vaccines Project mentioned earlier in the article, the Coronavirus Visualization Team hopes to leave a lasting footprint in America’s progress against the pandemic through publications, articles, and partnerships.

While the CVT continues to mitigate the effects of the current infodemic, caused by the widespread inaccessibility of trustworthy COVID-19 information, other initiatives — such as nonprofits and campaigns across the U.S — attempt to promote vaccine accessibility with the development of FDA-approved vaccines.

An example of such an initiative is Health Leads, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Health Leads hopes to promote an equitable distribution of vaccines across the U.S and accelerate the general population’s confidence in vaccines.

The United States is slowly achieving a period of normalcy through its development and distribution of vaccines; however, there are still many remaining issues — such as vaccine inaccessibility, hesitancy, and misinformation — that need to be ameliorated in order for the nation to achieve complete immunity and fully recover from this global crisis.

The United States’ Battle Against the Pandemic was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

En Yu Yap has lived all across the globe. After growing up in the modern metropolis of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Yap moved to Basel, Switzerland at age 12. After graduating from the IB Diploma Program at Switzerland’s International School of Basel, En Yu Yap is currently awaiting her transition from high school to college life. She will be attending the University of Hong Kong in the fall, majoring in Chemistry.

Yap is an original member of the Coronavirus Visualization Team; she joined the organization when it first started over a year ago. The start of remote learning gave Yap more free time to pursue her intellectual interests, and thus she searched for a virtual student organization that could offer her skill development. After coming across the CVT’s message — the idea that students can come together and contribute to scientific research — Yap was intrigued and prompted to join the organization’s initiatives.

From there, she took off.

As the Director of Partnerships, Yap works directly with the Executive Director, Yogya Kalra, to meet with potential partners and pitch the benefits of partnering with CVT. Above all, Yap proposes potential partners that address CVT’s needs, and she maintains good relationships with CVT’s established partner organizations.

Through her role, Yap has gained an incredible amount of exposure to scientific research and professional communication.

“Besides the technical skills relating to visualization, I learn the most about professional communication in the workplace,” remarks Yap. “In school, we are exposed to familiar faces: classmates, teachers, school personnel. We do not get much experience communicating extensively and formally with a stranger. As the Director of Partnerships in CVT, I quickly learn about each organization and its representatives and identify how we can mutually benefit from the partnerships. Then, I have to maintain a sustainable relationship between us through constant communication. This experience is not commonly accessible for a typical high schooler, so I’m lucky to have this opportunity.”

All of these skills have benefited Yap greatly in her academic and extracurricular pursuits, and she attributes them to the people that she met in the CVT. With members all across the globe, all pursuing different majors, Yap appreciates the diversity she found in this organization, alongside the passion, experience, and knowledge that each member brings to the team.

Outside of the CVT, Yap greatly enjoys immersing herself in the activities available at her school: including Model UN, big band, choir, math club, and varsity softball. As a big proponent for language learning, Yap also founded a peer tutoring program and a volunteering program with her school’s modern language department.

“I hope to spark inspiration in students to be more engaged in language learning and immersion,” Yap says.

When she’s not diligently studying or helping improve the world in her extracurricular pursuits, Yap can be found catching up on the latest of Korean reality TV shows. After this love began at the start of quarantine, Yap found her Korean skills skyrocketing over the past year with each episode she watches. She firmly believes that listening to locals speaking the language she’s learning is the most effective way to improve her language level by self-study.

If you ever need an expert in media partnerships, or someone to gossip about Korean reality TV with, you can reach En Yu Yap at enyuyap@gmail.com!

Meet En Yu Yap- Director Of Partnerships at the CVT was originally published in Coronavirus Visualization Team on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.