Behind the Numbers: SOTY 2020

How did analysts calculate the different numbers?

The Royal Statistical Society runs the Statistics of the Year competition. This is to highlight key figures from the past year.

This article provides information about quality and methods for the six chosen numbers. The original version of this article appears on the Royal Statistical Society’s website.

International Statistic of the Year

Winner: 332 days

The length of time between scientists publishing the genetic sequence of COVID-19 (11 January 2020) and an effective vaccine being administered (8 December 2020).

Various sources give different dates for when scientists published the genetic sequence. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says the 10th January 2020. This refers to the deposit on the GenBank database, with accession number MN908947. The World Health Organisation website states the 11th January 2020. This discrepancy may be due to time zones. The Virological post writes it was on ‘10th January’, but the record is time-stamped as ‘Jan 11, 1:05AM’.

The NHS first administered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 8th December 2020.