Counting in the time of Covid-19 CHARLOTTA LEVAY
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an intense focus on numbers. People follow the latest statistics of infected, hospitalized and dead closely to get a sense of how the pandemic is evolving. Policymakers use population-adjusted rates to inform and motivate policy measures which are themselves often expressed in numbers, such as how many persons are allowed to congregate, how far from home people may travel, and how many days people need to self-isolate after being exposed to contagion. Advanced epidemiological expressions previously known only to experts, such as “R0” and “Re” (the basic and the effective reproduction rates), have become subjects of heated public debate. In many countries, opinions about how to fight Covid-19 are polarized. It is increasingly contested how numbers should be interpreted and which numbers should count. Quantified information is essential to developing and communicating science and proven experience, but it in-
