“COVID-19 Infections in Austin, Texas”

Emily Javan (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Graduate Program)

What do we know about our sickest COVID-19 patients? In Austin, TX the sickest patients end up in the hospital where doctors collect their age and where they live. We used this information from 6,444 patients across 5 counties to estimate how many people have been infected with COVID-19 by age group and ZIP code. ZIP codes in East Austin have the most infected residents, while those near Cedar Park have the least. Once we know where our sickest patients live, we can explore why they had such negative health outcomes and think about how to help. In this presentation we’ll discuss where our estimates come from and explore some reasons for one ZIP code to have more COVID-19 infections than another.

The research discussed in this presentation includes contributions from the following scientists: Emily Javan, Emily Kushnereit, Briana Betke, Spencer Woody, Remy Pasco, Kelly Pierce, Kaitlyn Johnson, Maureen Johnson-León, Michael Lachmann, Spencer J. Fox, and Lauren Ancel Meyers.

Science Under the Stars has gone virtual! This semester all SUTS activities will be online, but they encourage you to participate outdoors under the stars in your backyard! (If wifi allows for it, of course.)

Here’s the schedule for this month’s event:

• February 4th: Links to the kids activities and live online lecture/Q&A will be posted here and as an event on the Science Under the Stars Facebook page.
• February 11th, 7:00pm CST: Live online lecture and Q&A with the speaker!