A Second Wave? What Do People Mean by COVID Waves? – A Working Definition of Epidemic Waves

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Abstract

No abstract available

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.02.21.21252147: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Limitation and future research: Our approach is limited by the following points. First, COVID-19 daily cases may be misreported, and reporting delays and inconsistent practices for defining and testing COVID-19 cases may also influence the accuracy of daily cases, which are the input to calculate the reproduction rate and hence the characterization of waves. To reduce the noise and errors in daily reporting, our definition picks the average of the past 14 days. However, the average over 14-day samples does come at a trade-off that a sharp to exceptionally low values within a couple of days may not be statistically significant. Our choice of the parameter offers one possible illustration of the calibration of a working definition of epidemic waves, and other calibrations are possible. Our working definition characterizes waves by upward periods and downward periods, the fundamental elements of waves. We notice many broken waves (i.e., an upward period, a break, an upward period), so epidemic waves may not follow a symmetrical pattern of an upward period followed by a downward period in some waves. Moreover, as the COVID-19 crisis still continues and worsens in many parts of the world, our findings remain incomplete and need to be updated as new data arrive.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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