Michael Donnelly
Data Scientist at Noom, Founder at COVIDOutlook.info
New York, NY, USA / White
👨 he/him/his
🎓 M.Sc., Political Science and Political Economy, The London School of Economics
B.A., Economics and Political Science, Vassar College
😁 Michael used to sing in a jazz choir with Lady Gaga when they were both in high school. And, now they have both been featured in Rolling Stone.
Michael lives with his husband in New York City.
Michael uses data to more quickly identify new outbreaks of COVID-19, in order to slow the spread of the disease. Computer science is transforming public health!
ABOUT HIS WORK
Michael’s forecasts of the COVID-19 pandemic helped convince the mayor and governor of New York to take unprecedented measures to limit the spread of the disease in March 2020. More recently, he alerted the CDC to a cluster of COVID-19 breakthrough cases among vaccinated people in Provincetown, MA. This led to a CDC investigation, which changed their guidance to the American people on how they should protect themselves from the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 even after they were vaccinated.
WATCH & DISCUSS
Watch: Smartphone-Assisted, Privacy-Preserving COVID-19 Contact Tracing
Discuss:
Why is contract tracing important?
How can bluetooth be used for contract tracing technology?
How can we maintain privacy with this technology?
OTHER RESOURCES
Running Out of Time/Michael Donnelly - Podcast: EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder (33 minutes)
ARTICLES
How A Gay Community Helped the CDC Spot a COVID Outbreak -- And Learn More About Delta - npr.org - 9 min read
How New York’s missteps let Covid-19 overwhelm the US - Financial Times
What Provincetown’s Gay Community Can Teach Us About Containing Covid - RollingStone
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
COVIDoutlook.info - Compare your state or area to the United States as a whole. Investigate (and justify) whether COVID transmission has gotten better or worse in the last three months
Computer Science and Covid-19 (Flipgrids are linked)
ADVICE TO YOUNGER SELF
