Inside STAT: Sexist and incomplete data hinder the world’s Covid-19 response

(ADOBE)

With all of the data that is slowly being accumulated on Covid-19 and its impact on the world, there is still a glaring gap, Melinda Gates writes in a new First Opinion for STAT. "When it comes to the pandemic and its effect on women, too often we just don’t have the numbers," writes Gates, the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Whether it's the impact of the pandemic on the number of women being forced to leave the workforce, or even the number of women and girls who have died of Covid-19, there are no clear numbers. Governments around the world should collect and report data on Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and other statistics at least by sex and age, Gates argues, and also work on making policy decisions informed by more robust data collection. "Data can make the invisible visible, and Covid-19 is showing us how important it is to see every aspect of a crisis," she writes. Read more here.