Coronavirus

Throughout this spring, Belfer Fellow Dr. Syra Madad developed and hosted a Women in STEM event series to highlight women leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The aim of the series was to recognize the many accomplishments and contributions by women in STEM fields while educating and empowering young women, providing valuable advice, and sharing pearls of wisdom. This six-event series featured guest speakers that included America's Top Young Scientist Gitanjali Rao, former White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, leading figure in the U.S. space program Lori Garver and Spacecraft Operations Engineer Nagin Cox, Tiktok-renowned epidemiologist Dr. Katrine Wallace, and many more.

In late January, at the peak of America’s COVID-19 outbreak, and nearly two months after the first vaccine was approved, Graham Allison and research assistant Hugo Yen found that hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses were being left unused on shelves due to sluggish rollouts by state governments....By simplifying the array of vaccination statistics provided by the CDC into clear metrics, Allison and Yen developed a COVID-19 Vaccine Report Card to help citizens easily understand their states’ performance in the vaccine rollout and better hold their state governments accountable. 

Since March, the Belfer Center’s scholars and practitioners have been physically distanced but intellectually close. They’ve faced the pandemic head-on, launching new types of research to explore the unusual, tragic circumstances of this year. 

These new products include tips and advice regarding COVID, health, and safety from Juliette Kayyem, Faculty Director of our Homeland Security Project, and a series of reports and recommendations regarding preparing for and responding to future pandemics from the OPCAST Ad-Hoc Pandemic Response Group, led by John P. Holdren.