Data tells us that we’re largely flattening the COVID-19 curve, that the vaccine is working, and that there is hope for 2021 and beyond. However, as the survival of billions of people around the world seems to depend more than ever on each government’s use of data, one can’t help but question whether data can truly be trusted as friend or foe.
As China battled COVID-19 early on in the pre-vaccine era, data was its strongest ally in containing the threat by tracing and quarantining contacts through elaborate data collection. However, as the media around the world analyse and interpret...