Data & Eggs
Volume 226
In this week’s edition: how much women and men work, what we know about waning vaccine effectiveness, and why Twitter’s algorithm favors conservatives.
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How Much Women and Men Work
Here’s a cool chart from FlowingData that shows how the percentage of men and women in the workforce has changed since 1960. Unsurprisingly, the share of women who worked at least one week out of the year has gone up, from 42% in 1960 to 62% in 2019. Meanwhile, the share of men who work has dropped, even as those who work tend to work for more weeks during the year.
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What We Know So Far About Waning Vaccine Effectiveness
A growing body of research is starting to examine how well the major COVID vaccines hold up over time. Preliminary studies suggest that these vaccines remain highly protective against the worst outcomes, even months after the final shot. Still, these same studies show that the vaccines’ effectiveness against symptomatic infection does diminish over time.
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How has Cop26 shifted the dial on the climate crisis? A visual guide
The UN’s 26th annual summit on climate change (Cop26) concluded in Glasgow on Saturday, with all countries agreeing to the Glasgow Climate Pact. The agreement demonstrates some progress, but not nearly enough to avoid dangerous levels of overheating. Major emitters like the US, China, and EU have all increased their ambitions from two years ago, but not enough to stay in line with goals from the Paris Climate Accords.
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According to Twitter, Twitter’s algorithm favours conservatives
For years, Americans have debated how algorithmic bias affects the types of news articles they see on social media. An interesting new study from internal researchers at Twitter sheds light on the issue. Twitter’s own data shows that, across six of seven countries studied, conservative politicians and media outlets receive more amplification from Twitter’s newsfeed algorithm than their left-wing counterparts.