https://youtu.be/TRf8FsnCRgM

Many estimates of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness rely on large-scale data systems such as national health insurance plans. There is a temptation to believe that since these datasets are large and have high penetrance, that epidemiological bias does not play a large role. However, there are still several important challenges to causal inference with big COVID-19 data. We will walk through these challenges and discuss potential solutions.

Maria Sundaram is an Associate Research Scientist at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute. Her current research involves estimating the burden of respiratory viruses like influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV, and estimating the effectiveness of vaccines for them.

Fun Fact: Maria’s favorite movie is Clue!