The Economist announced Tuesday that it’s expanding its science and data journalism with a new weekly podcast, “The Jab from The Economist,” as well as a new COVID mortality-risk calculator and two weekly newsletters.
The 30-minute podcast series that will include analysis of efforts to vaccinate the planet againstCOVID-19. Over the course of the series its experts will explore the global impact of the rollout of the vaccinations. Each episode will tackle a different theme, ranging from virology and vaccine manufacturing to geopolitics and vaccine hesitancy.
The podcast series is hosted by science correspondent Alok Jha and health-policy editor Natasha Loder, and supported by a team of four editors and producers. The show will launch on Monday, Feb. 15, and a new episode will air each subsequent Monday for an initial run of 12 weeks.
“In a worldwide pandemic we are more globally interdependent than ever,” said Anne McElvoy, senior editor at The Economist and head of Economist Radio, in a statement. “The Jab aims to help listeners keep up on vaccine development and rollout around the world, and will provide vital insight and analysis into their effectiveness as countries seek to overcome the pandemic together.”
The Economist is also launching a COVID-19 mortality risk-calculator later in February. Developed in consultation with experts from academia and industry, the COVID-19 mortality-risk calculator will enable users to calculate their own risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or death based on demographic factors and underlying health conditions. The probabilities are based on data sourced from hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients and their outcomes.
The Economist will also launch two new email newsletters this month. On Feb. 16, the data team will launch “Off the Charts,” which will bring the best of The Economist’s data journalism, as well as insights into how the data team works, straight to readers’ inboxes. The following day the science team will launch “Simply Science,” a weekly newsletter showcasing that week’s science journalism in the weekly edition and online, in podcasts and on film.
