New scores on old sores: The Morts Pour la France database on WWI fatalities in France (Vox EU)

Vox EU: New scores on old sores: The Morts Pour la France database on WWI fatalities in France. “As the war in Ukraine demonstrates, accurate numbers of those killed or injured in combat are hard to come by. This column describes the ‘Morts pour la France’ database, which contains individual-level data on the 1.3 million French fatalities during WWI. The database improves our grasp of geography (rural, poorer, less industrialised areas were harder hit), of battle-specific violence (the deadliest day in French history took place during the Second Battle of Champagne), and of conflict technology (the share of infantry decreased over time while the share of artillery increased).”

New York Times: Official Data Hinted at China’s Hidden Covid Toll. Then It Vanished.

New York Times: Official Data Hinted at China’s Hidden Covid Toll. Then It Vanished.. “Official data from China offered a rare, but brief, glimpse of the true toll of Covid, indicating that nearly as many people may have died from the virus in a single province earlier this year as Beijing has said died in the mainland during the entire pandemic. The data was deleted from a provincial government website just days after it was published on Thursday. But epidemiologists who reviewed a cached version of the information said it was the latest indication that the country’s official tally is a vast undercount.”

KVUE: Texas DSHS launches fentanyl data dashboard

KVUE: Texas DSHS launches fentanyl data dashboard. “The dashboard reflects an expansion of data on fentanyl and other drug poisoning deaths published online by the DSHS. Texans can now access information that includes fentanyl-related deaths from 2014 to 2023, and the dashboard lets users view that data over time, by demographics or by geography.”

Boston University School of Public Health: New Excess Mortality Estimates Show Increases in US Rural Mortality during Second Year of COVID-19 Pandemic

Boston University School of Public Health: New Excess Mortality Estimates Show Increases in US Rural Mortality during Second Year of COVID-19 Pandemic. “This excess mortality data is now publicly available for researchers and the broader public to view in a first-of-its-kind online database and interactive tool that the researchers created to serve as a resource for people to further examine the social, structural, and policy drivers of excess mortality during the pandemic.”

NextGov: AI and Twitter Could Help Predict Opioid Deaths

NextGov: AI and Twitter Could Help Predict Opioid Deaths. “A unique approach using artificial intelligence and social media posts could predict opioid mortality rates, researchers report. The findings revealed that a sophisticated AI algorithm was able to predict opioid death rates—going back from previous years 2011 to 2017—much more accurately than using traditional information researchers and clinicians often use, such as prior rates in communities and socio-economic measures.” Unfortunately accessing Twitter for research purposes is about to get really expensive.

‘These were babies, not numbers’: New website documents deaths in mother and baby homes (The Journal)

The Journal (Ireland): ‘These were babies, not numbers’: New website documents deaths in mother and baby homes. “INSPIRED BY HIS own family’s connection to Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork, Daniel Loftus has committed to compiling an online database that documents all the people who died in these institutions in Ireland. The 18-year-old student started Project Infant in July and is currently going through records for various mother and baby homes, county homes and other institutions in a bid to compile a comprehensive list of all the mothers and children who died there.”

Newswise: UCLA researchers use artificial intelligence tools to speed critical information on drug overdose deaths

Newswise: UCLA researchers use artificial intelligence tools to speed critical information on drug overdose deaths. “An automated process based on computer algorithms that can read text from medical examiners’ death certificates can substantially speed up data collection of overdose deaths – which in turn can ensure a more rapid public health response time than the system currently used, new UCLA research finds.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri launches data dashboard to track rising drug overdose deaths

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri launches data dashboard to track rising drug overdose deaths. “In addition to an online COVID-19 data dashboard showing the seriousness of the pandemic, the state of Missouri has launched another public dashboard to track the increasing number of drug overdose deaths. Drug overdose has become the leading cause of death among Missouri adults age 18 to 44, state health officials say. More than 70% of the deaths involve opioids such as heroin and fentanyl.”

Fast Company: How many preventable COVID deaths happened in your state? This map will tell you

Fast Company: How many preventable COVID deaths happened in your state? This map will tell you. “As the United States passes the somber milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19, a new analysis and interactive dashboard visualizes how many of those deaths didn’t have to happen. The analysis, led by researchers at the Brown School of Public Health, looks at total deaths from the virus in each state and then calculates how much lower the figures would be had the pace of vaccination not slowed down from its peak.”

World Health Organization: WHO launches new Mortality Database visualization portal

World Health Organization: WHO launches new Mortality Database visualization portal. “Since its founding in 1948, WHO has required all Member States to report mortality data and collected this information in the WHO Mortality Database. Today, this unique database is the oldest and largest of its kind, containing data from over 120 countries and areas by cause, year, sex, and age. The portal is a significant step towards ensuring mortality data is used to drive impact in countries. Among other features, users can now filter and compare information by disease category or age group. They can also use interactive visualizations to view the data by number of deaths, death rates per 100 000, or as a percentage of total deaths.”

Lifehacker: How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy (and Why You Should)

Lifehacker: How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy (and Why You Should). “What’s truly disturbing about our digital legacies is how impermanent they might prove to be. Once you’re no longer here to maintain it, it could be edited or altered—or simply deleted. Twitter is currently littered with the official, verified accounts of celebrities who passed away but somehow keep on posting fresh content, but you don’t have to be a celebrity to want some say in how your online presence gets used after you’re gone.”

CNET: The App That Prepares You for Death

CNET: The App That Prepares You for Death. “When someone you love passes away, it’s impossibly hard to prioritize all the logistics. You’re facing unimaginable stress and grief all at once, so when it comes time to negotiate funeral planning, insurance records, legal and financial documents, and more, it can be overwhelming. So it’s important to get all of this sorted before you’re reeling from loss. Enter Bereev, a death preparation app that’s beginning to make waves in Australia.”

Nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths: A look at the US numbers (Associated Press)

Associated Press: Nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths: A look at the US numbers. “The pandemic has generated gigabytes of data that make clear which U.S. groups have been hit the hardest. More than 700,000 people 65 and older died. Men died at higher rates than women. White people made up most of the deaths overall, yet an unequal burden fell on Black, Hispanic and Native American people considering the younger average age of minority communities. Racial gaps narrowed between surges then widened again with each new wave.”