Index Archive

Chances an American has gone to work while feeling sick

: 3 in 4

Percentage of U.S. doctors who said in 2014 that they had gone to work sick in the past year

: 83

Percentage of those doctors who said they had done so because they “did not want to let their colleagues down”

: 99

Average number of text messages sent per second over AT&T’s network during peak traffic on New Year’s Eve

: 15,000

During peak traffic in the last two weeks of March this year

: 23,000

Percentage decrease in the total number of steps taken by New Yorkers during the first week of the city’s stay-at-home order

: 50

Factor by which Google searches for “bidet” increased in March

: 7

By which searches for “bread recipes” increased

: 3.3

Percentage of Americans who say they would spend most of a two-week quarantine learning a new skill

: 3

Who say they would spend most of it watching television or movies

: 35

Percentage by which streaming of the film Contagion in mid-March exceeded the previous four-week average

: 3,000

Percentage by which Netflix cut its European traffic in March by reducing its streaming quality

: 25

Minimum number of countries in which Netflix has reduced its streaming quality

: 71

Percentage of U.S. adults who believed in March that the media had exaggerated the risks of COVID-19

: 62

Who believed that COVID-19 was developed intentionally in a lab

: 23

Estimated percentage chance that a laboratory will accidentally release a deadly, airborne avian flu in the next five years

: 16

Estimated percentage chance that such a release will result in a pandemic

: 15

Minimum number of U.S. deaths in a novel influenza pandemic simulation conducted by the federal government last year

: 400,000

Maximum value of damage done to the economy in that simulation

: $3,790,000,000,000

Percentage increase since January in users of the top ten most popular teleconferencing apps

: 142

Percentage of paying Slack customers that the company’s CEO anticipates losing because of bankruptcies by September

: 5

Number of states that have laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave

: 12

Percentage of U.S. workers in the top 25 percent of earners who have access to paid sick leave

: 92

Of U.S. workers in the bottom 10 percent of earners who do

: 31

Amount of money since 2017 that venture capitalists have invested in drug development

: $42,000,000,000

Percentage of that money that has gone toward drugs to treat rare diseases

: 11

That has gone toward drugs to treat infectious diseases

: 5

Percentage change in CDC funding proposed in a 2021 Trump budget plan that was released in February

: –9

In CDC funding proposed in a revised budget plan that was released in March

: +8

Portion of Americans who think there will be an apocalyptic disaster in their lifetimes

: 3/10

Percentage of men who think they would survive a week or more in such a disaster

: 49

Of women who think they would

: 36

Percentage of U.S. adults who think the apocalypse will most likely be caused by climate change

: 19

Who think it will most likely be caused by a pandemic

: 19

Portion of U.S. adults who believed in 2018 that Americans would cooperate with one another in a crisis

: 3/4

Percentage by which a white American was more likely than a black American to believe this

: 16

Minimum number of U.S. states that have treated gun stores as essential businesses during the pandemic

: 27

Percentage of U.S. adults who say they have prayed for an end to the spread of the coronavirus

: 55

Percentage of those people who say they seldom or never pray

: 15

Harper’s Index

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