Bloomberg Businessweek December 7, 2020
○ Since early March the
Covid Tracking Project
has cataloged more than
170 million tests, becoming
the authoritative source for
virus statistics in the U.S.
Madrigal and Meyer, staff writers at the
Atlantic, started the project after they
broke news in early March that the U.S. was
vastly overrepresenting the number of peo-
ple who had been tested for Covid-19. They
put out a call for volunteers, and Kissane,
now the CTP’s managing editor, was the
first to sign on. Hammerbacher, a venture
capitalist and data scientist, was Madrigal’s
college roommate.
The question they wanted to answer:
How many Americans were getting
tested for Covid-19? As the coronavirus
spread, that seemed like one for the fed-
eral government, but it didn’t have the
infrastructure in place to produce a reli-
able answer. So the co-founders begancompiling a spreadsheet
that became the backbone
of something more compre-
hensive: a full-scale public-health
reporting initiative that’s now run by
300 volunteers and a core group of paid
staff supported by grants.
In addition to keeping tabs on state-
by-state numbers for cases, tests, hos-
pitalizations, and outcomes, the Covid
Tracking Project also started monitor-
ing racial disparities and nursing homes.
Johns Hopkins University uses CTP stats
for its Testing Insights Initiative, and the
cable networks often source project
data in their tallies of cases and deaths.
—Drew Armstrong
The Testing Insights Initiative is a collab-
oration among groups at Johns Hopkins
that include the Bloomberg School of
Public Health, and it’s supported in part
by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Michael
Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg
Philanthropies, is also the founder and
majority owner of Bloomberg LP, which
owns Bloomberg Businessweek.○ One of China’s most popular
media personalities, she hit
record numbers this year with
her shopping broadcasts,
averaging 20 million views in
April—double the figure in late
2019—as consumers opted
to transact from the safety of
their sofas.Viya dominates China’s $60 billion
livestream shopping industry. On
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s
e-commerce platform, she plays
the enthusiastic saleswoman
and master of ceremonies, push-
ing instant noodles, cosmetics,
and more during broadcasts that
are part infomercial and part vari-
ety show. Links to buy the items
she endorses aren’t released
until five seconds after her pitch,heightening the sense of urgency.
Products are known to sell out.
Already popular before the
coronavirus pandemic, Viya—
the name is a play on “slightly
hoarse,” in reference to her husky
voice—and streamers like her are
increasingly essential to global
brands trying to extend their
reach in China. Multinationals
such as Procter & Gamble Co.
and Tesla Inc. have turned to
her to get their goods in front of
consumers. So, too, has Wuhan-
based Casic Rocket Technology
Co., which enlisted Viya to offer
her most unusual item to date: the
right to send a small payload into
space. That went for about 40 mil-
lion yuan ($6.1 million) on a show
in April. —Jinshan Hong and
Allen K. WanVIYA
LIVESTREAMER
THE COVID
TRACKING
PROJECT
ALEXIS MADRIGAL,
ROBINSON MEYER,
ERIN KISSANE &
JEFF HAMMERBACHER,
CO-FOUNDERSMADRIGAL MEYER KISSANE HAMMERBACHER67