Life and Data Literacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Since 2020, COVID-19 has spread globally. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we became habituated to visually checking the number of confirmed cases nationwide every morning. The number of confirmed cases is important because the number of deaths increases in proportion. For three years, we have been able to check the number of confirmed cases and deaths every day through media reports or government announcements. Literacy is an essential ability for individual communication and social participation. In particular, the importance of data literacy has been increasingly emphasized. We have become accustomed in the pandemic era to the confirmed cases, deaths, and fatalities expressed in numbers. In a correct understanding of data literacy, it is clear that this number means life. What this paper emphasizes is the numbers commonly encountered in the pandemic era, and the problem of life contained in those numbers. We have seen many “numbers” in three years, but have not looked closely at the life and people, the pain and tears hidden in these numbers. The number in a catastrophic infectious disease situation is life. The numbers we became used to during the pandemic meant life. We need to understand this more humanely. This is the data literacy of the COVID-19 pandemic that we need.