The February 2021 issue (18:1) of Significance has just been published.

Included in this issue:

Ron Fricker assesses the impact of the pandemic in the United States by calculating the number of “excess deaths”.

Data on excess deaths in Russia in 2020 paint a much bleaker picture of the Covid‐19 death toll than the official daily updated number, argues Dmitry Kobak.

Katherine Hoffman is a biostatistician in the pulmonary and critical care team of a New York City hospital, who found herself part of the Covid‐19 response when the outbreak first hit in March 2020. This is her story.

Against the background of explosive growth in data volume, velocity, and variety, Francis X. Diebold investigates the origins of the term “Big Data”.

Walter W. Piegorsch, Rachel R. McCaster and Susan L. Cutter explain how the tools of data science can help quantify the risks and vulnerabilities to hazards in the places where we live and work.

Significance magazine has opened its archives for access by the public. The magazine’s volumes 1-16 and volume 17 issue 1 from 2020 are available to read, free of charge. Further, all magazine content will be made freely available one year after its initial publication. RSS and ASA members and subscribers will continue to enjoy exclusive access to the latest magazine content.

Significance is a bi-monthly magazine for anyone interested in statistics and the analysis and interpretation of data. Its aim is to communicate and demonstrate in an entertaining, thought provoking and non-technical way the practical use of statistics in all walks of life, and to show informatively and authoritatively how statistics benefit society. It is published on behalf of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association.