The Data Gaps of the Pandemic: Data Poverty and Forms of Invisibility

Since the COVID-19 virus was first identified in mainland China at the end of 2019, the pandemic has affected an exceptionally high portion of the world population. Not surprisingly, numbers are at the very core of the narration of the pandemic. Figures of various kinds fill the news, accounting for the death toll, the progress of population testing, the growth of individuals who tested positive for the virus and the saturation of intensive care units, among others. These numbers contribute to making the problem ‘amenable to thought’, and thus serve as ‘both representation and intervention’ (Osborne and Rose, 2004). As such, they shape both governmental action and the popular response to it.