The main thing I’ve gotten out of microcovid is reduced search costs. Having ballpark figures for the relative effects of situations and interventions, gathered in one place, by a source I consider reasonably trustworthy, makes it much cheaper to estimate which risks are worth taking and which interventions are worth bothering with.
“Trustworthy” in this context means “someone systematically looking for the correct numbers, as opposed to targeting a bottom line chosen for reasons other than correctness.” As with most politicized information, the problem isn’t that the information is unavailable, but that most sources are acting in bad faith. Noise drowns out the signal until search costs become prohibitive. Your whitepaper in particular is excellent in this respect. Showing your work goes a long way towards demonstrating good faith; sharing your sources is better; sharing how and why you’re using them is best of all.
Even just having the available options collected together helped. I didn’t know P100s were a thing until I read your whitepaper. I use one to attend otherwise-riskier-than-I’d-like events in relative safety and comfort.
It’s a shame that Microcovid’s numbers haven’t been updated for omicron—that would be the first item on my wishlist, along with the booster and test numbers mentioned in other comments—but that doesn’t diminish the work you’ve already done. Your team provided an identifiable signal in the noise, and I love it for that.
[edit: since you ask for dollar values, I’d be willing to contribute say $1k towards getting the numbers updated for omicron, tests, and boosters—provided that it was done to similar standards and preferably by the same team. That’s less because I’d derive that much value out of it personally (at this point I know what I need to) and more that I think this sort of work is an underfunded public good.]
The main thing I’ve gotten out of microcovid is reduced search costs. Having ballpark figures for the relative effects of situations and interventions, gathered in one place, by a source I consider reasonably trustworthy, makes it much cheaper to estimate which risks are worth taking and which interventions are worth bothering with.
“Trustworthy” in this context means “someone systematically looking for the correct numbers, as opposed to targeting a bottom line chosen for reasons other than correctness.” As with most politicized information, the problem isn’t that the information is unavailable, but that most sources are acting in bad faith. Noise drowns out the signal until search costs become prohibitive. Your whitepaper in particular is excellent in this respect. Showing your work goes a long way towards demonstrating good faith; sharing your sources is better; sharing how and why you’re using them is best of all.
Even just having the available options collected together helped. I didn’t know P100s were a thing until I read your whitepaper. I use one to attend otherwise-riskier-than-I’d-like events in relative safety and comfort.
It’s a shame that Microcovid’s numbers haven’t been updated for omicron—that would be the first item on my wishlist, along with the booster and test numbers mentioned in other comments—but that doesn’t diminish the work you’ve already done. Your team provided an identifiable signal in the noise, and I love it for that.
[edit: since you ask for dollar values, I’d be willing to contribute say $1k towards getting the numbers updated for omicron, tests, and boosters—provided that it was done to similar standards and preferably by the same team. That’s less because I’d derive that much value out of it personally (at this point I know what I need to) and more that I think this sort of work is an underfunded public good.]