Lauren Gardner is a scientist and civil engineer professor at Johns Hopkins University who has won this year's Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award. The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the award Wednesday, Sept. 28, with a cash prize amounting to $250,000.
Gardner's COVID-19 Tracker
Gardner is a scientist who studies the spread of diseases. As the cases of Coronavirus escalated in January 2020, she worked with her colleagues in a laboratory to develop the COVID-19 tracking map.
It is an interactive and easy-to-use dashboard that has become the world's key resource for tracking and providing real-time data about the pandemic. It supplies detailed information about the worldwide Covid-19 cases, number of deaths, existing vaccines, access to health care and insurance, plus other key trends.
This tool also became an answer to the unsteady flow of pandemic cases coming from various groups. It was a product to resolve the fabricated and inaccurate news swirling around the internet.
The website has recorded 1.2 billion page views since it was launched in 2020. A lot of viewers and users landed on the Global Map page. As the tracker continues to serve its purpose, it is reported that the website is being viewed 6 million times every month.
"By launching this global COVID-19 surveillance tool, she provided accessible and reliable information about the spread of an emerging infectious disease, thereby filling a void in the international public health system and establishing a model to emulate," according to the Lasker Foundation through an article released by Lisa Ercolano of Johns Hopkins University.
With what the dashboard can do, Gardner and her lab team made it accessible to the public. Government officials were about to make responsible decisions based on the tracker's results.
The Lasker Foundation
The Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award is among the most prestigious prizes in medicine, honoring important individuals and groups who had a revolutionary contribution to medical research.
It's paramount that the contribution aimed to widen and improve the public's understanding of health in general or have benefitted people's lives through a public health practice.
The past well-known recipients of this award include Anthony S. Fauci, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates.
Another Awardee for Medical Research
Following Gardner's award, a prize under the clinical medical research category was also granted to Yuk Ming Dennis Lo.
Lo is a molecular biologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who presented a fetal DNA detection technology.
In 1997, scientists and researchers discovered that tiny pieces of an unborn baby's DNA could also be found in the mother's bloodstream. This finding became essential in developing a noninvasive prenatal blood test two decades later.
The said DNA testing can detect Down syndrome and other genetic conditions. Right now, over 60 countries adopted the technology, which has been performed 10 million times in different labs and hospitals.
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Written by Trisha Kae Andrada
