Most years are filled with various things that rotate through the headlines and then disappear. Sometimes it's the weather, sometimes a takeover, sometimes a scandal, sometimes politics. But this past year? While the election was certainly a hot topic, even it waxed and waned. Only one subject stayed above the fold, and well it should: even counting various so called "world" wars, it's been over 100 years since a singular event engulfed every person on the planet and threatened to take it all down.
The all encompassing nature of the pandemic has meant marked changes to the way we live and work. We've had to learn a new vocabulary. And we've all become amateur epidemiologists and public health inspectors. But as much as any one thing, it has also turned us all into statisticians, as the lingua franca of the epidemic is numbers.
It was Galileo who said that the universe can't be understood unless you spoke its language, and that language was math. But he might just as well have been talking about our current situation. At its simplest it's a tale of aggregates: now many are infected, now many have died, how many are hospitalized. Added to those are more nuanced expressions, such as ICU capacity, transmissibility coefficient and case fatality ratio. It's gotten so that even those who can barely balance their checkbook can effortlessly discuss the impact of positivity rates on school reopenings.
But while we can't run nor hide from the statistics that rule our very day to day movement, we can be distracted from them. So if numbers have indeed become our second language, let's spend a few moments using this new found skill to appreciate some other aspects of our world. While some of these might leave you short of breath, I can guarantee it's only a temporary condition and you will recover quickly with no lasting effects.
Online shopping has grown to the point that estimates that there are over 2 billion people clicking and buying. When you consider that the global population is approaching 8 billion, that means that 1 in 4 human beings has had an Amazon package show up at their front door. While there are footnotes such as Africa having 17% of the world's population with fewer half able to access the internet, penetration rates in developed countries akin to US are approaching 90%. It's hard to think of any one thing nine tenths of any country can agree upon, other than the fact that Baby Yoda is cute.
And speaking of online entertainment, when people weren't buying they were watching. Not surprisingly, when staring at the screen became the only game in town, usage grew. Netflix is on track to have over 200 million paying customers, with its top originals series being "The Umbrella Academy," "Lucifer," "Money Heist," "The Crown" and "The Queen's Gambit." But as impressive as that is it pales besides YouTube, which has over 2 billion monthly users watching more than 500 hours of new content being uploaded every minute. No wonder you have having problems sleeping: so much to watch, so little time.
In the rush to get away from those homes where we live, work, play and shop, there looks to be a campus bound traffic jam come September 2021. Early Action and Decision rates have dropped for some top school as applications have increased but freshman class size has not. MIT's acceptance rate for next fall dropped to 4.8% from 7.4% last year, after seeing a 62% increase in applicants. Similar stories can be found at Harvard (7.4% from 13.9% with 57% more applications), Johns Hopkins (19%-28%-11%) and Duke (17%-21%-18%). On the other hand, now's the time to put your name into Colgate, Northeastern or Providence, as they report EA/ED rates of 61%, 53% and 54% respectively. It's like picking the right lane at the toll booth. They all get you to the bridge, it's just how easy it is to get through the gate.
There's lots more. While more than half the world's population uses social media, it's even higher in the US at 79%. While more people searched online for tutorials on how to cut your own hair, twice as many searched for "mullet" as "buzz cut." There was a 70% increase in people adopting dogs, so called pandemic puppies. And just guessing, but probably 100% of you reading this have now had enough.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford thinks there's a 50-50 chance you liked this. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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