Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw.
When numbers benumb the senses, when what is calculable as a number is incomprehensible as a fact of life, when we can assign each life a number but cannot articulate the enormity of the total number of lives lost to COVID-19, when in the course of these events, we must also remember how we can use numbers to save lives; to strengthen our humanity and improve humankind. Thus, does data offer the promise of renewal in a time of trial, of health in a time of sickness, of safety in a time of uncertainty.
Data is important to how we respond to COVID-19, just as it is vital to when and where we target our response. Undergirding our response—the reason why we must respond—begins with data. If our response is to be effective, we must reverse the numbers; we must turn the numbers in our favor through a combination of protection and vaccination.
According to Brent Dillie of AmeriShield, makers of customizable personal protective equipment (PPE):
“Data is the foundation of engineering, just as engineering solutions to a public health crisis depends on how we review and apply data. Regarding efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, data reveals what we need to do. From identifying individuals in need of help to supplying institutions with help in the form of disposable face masks and PPE equipment, data has the potential to save lives.”
Dillie speaks to what data allows us to do: to humanize abstractions—to make the abstract accessible—by applying data for a specific purpose on behalf of a specific outcome. Whether the purpose is to manufacture and distribute disposable face masks, whether the outcome is visible by virtue of equipping each person with a face mask, whether the purpose is noble or the outcome is noteworthy, what matters is the power of data to reveal; the power to empower those men and women to join a cause greater than themselves.
As a scientist, I see this moment as a chance for the champions of data to seize the moment. That is to say, this moment is a chance for those who use data to speak in defense of the value of good data, to speak of the goodness that is possible through the goods people produce, to speak of data in the furtherance of values—enduring values like honor, duty, and sacrifice—that strengthen society.
A humanistic approach to data may inspire more people to study data. This approach, like the one Dillie describes, is practical. This approach proves that data is neither academic nor an issue exclusive to academics like biologists or biochemists (myself included) or experts in bioinformatics.
Data is important to public health and the life of our democratic republic. It is the lifeblood of the sciences—the arts and sciences—of a liberal arts education. It is where the humanities and technology intersect. It is, in the end, the highest ends through a diversity of means.
Data is the means we use for the end we seek.