Company:Airfinity

From HandWiki
Short description: Data and analytics company
Airfinity Ltd
TypePrivate company
IndustryData and analytics (health)
Founded2015
FoundersRasmus Bech Hansen
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom[1]
Websitewww.airfinity.com

Airfinity Ltd is a UK-based data and analytics company. It specialises in monitoring and forecasting trends in the global disease and public health industries.[2]

History

Airfinity was founded in 2015 by Rasmus Bech Hansen,[3][4] and is one of the 515 companies in which the UK government's Future Fund retains equity.[5]

In 2020, the company became one of the most quoted data companies in the media for its COVID-19 reports,[4][1] having been described as doing "the best modelling of the pandemic data" by professor Sir John Bell.[6]

In July 2022, Airfinity's analysis on COVID-19 vaccines estimated AstraZeneca's vaccine Vaxzevria saved 6.3m lives worldwide in its first year of usage[7] and Pfizer/BioNTech's Comirnarty saved 5.9 million lives in the same time period.[8][9]

On 25 December 2022, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced it would no longer be sharing data on COVID-19 infections.[10] After this, Airfinity became the leading source of COVID-19 infection and death estimates in China.[1][11]

Based on regional modelling, Airfinity estimated between 1.3 and 2.1 million people would die in the first wave of infections.[12][13] The firm's epidemiological forecast predicted cases would peak at 4.8 million a day and deaths would peak at 9,000 a day.[14][15][16]

In April 2023, The Rhodes Trust hosted a policy summit where experts discussed learnings from the pandemic. Speakers included Sir John Bell, Sir Tony Blair, George Fu Gao, Richard Hatchett, and Andrew Pollard. During the summit, Airfinity's CEO Rasmus Bech Hansen presented the company's forecast on the likelihood of another pandemic, which suggested that there was a 27.5% of a COVID-like pandemic occurring in the next decade.[17][18]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "How a little-known London start-up predicted China’s deadly Covid outbreak". Sarah Newey. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/airfinity-data-coronavirus-china-omicron-outbreak-pandemic/. 
  2. ↑ "Why now is the time to stock up on UK small caps". Ken Wotton and Tom Makey. https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2023/02/03/why-now-is-the-time-to-stock-up-on-uk-small-caps/?page=2. 
  3. ↑ "AIRFINITY LIMITED - Company number 09502389". https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09502389. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Meet Europe’s fastest-growing bootstrapped companies". Maija Palmer and Riddhi Kanetkar. https://sifted.eu/articles/europes-bootstrapped-startups. 
  5. ↑ "Companies in which the Future Fund has an equity interest". https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/coronavirus-business-interruption-loan-schemes/future-fund/future-fund-companies/. 
  6. ↑ "The World Tonight". https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001n8l0. 
  7. ↑ "UK Biological Security Strategy (HTML)". https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-biological-security-strategy/uk-biological-security-strategy-html. 
  8. ↑ "Which covid-19 vaccine saved the most lives in 2021?". https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/07/13/which-covid-19-vaccine-saved-the-most-lives-in-2021. 
  9. ↑ "Rapid-response manufacturing of adenovirus-vectored vaccines". https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-023-01682-2. 
  10. ↑ "China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention". http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqtb/202212/7272431ee60c4f4d953b0c16257c230e.shtml. 
  11. ↑ "China has stopped publishing daily COVID data amid reports of a huge spike in cases". Robbie Griffiths. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/25/1145472905/china-stops-publishing-daily-covid-data. 
  12. ↑ "China’s ‘zero-COVID’ limits saved lives but no clear exit". Maria Cheng & Carla K. Johnson. https://apnews.com/article/science-health-china-pandemics-xi-jinping-2fd68a0b6ac855fbad7d3fdc6c98be3f. 
  13. ↑ "Factbox: How many people might die, and why, under relaxed China COVID curbs". Brenda Goh. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/how-many-people-might-die-why-if-china-loosens-covid-restrictions-2022-12-03/. 
  14. ↑ "Airfinity CEO Says Covid Peak Could Go Much Higher". https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-12-12/airfinity-ceo-says-covid-peak-could-go-much-higher-video. 
  15. ↑ "China Covid: experts estimate 9,000 deaths a day as US says it may sample wastewater from planes". https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/30/china-covid-experts-estimate-9000-deaths-a-day-as-us-says-it-may-sample-wastewater-from-planes. 
  16. ↑ "China COVID deaths accelerate to 9,000 a day - UK research firm Airfinity". Ryan Woo and Joe Cash. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-covid-deaths-accelerate-9000-day-uk-research-firm-airfinity-2022-12-29/. 
  17. ↑ "Rhodes Policy Summit: Creating a Positive Legacy from the Pandemic". https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/news-events/events/events/2023/april/rhodes-policy-summit-creating-a-positive-legacy-from-the-pandemic/. 
  18. ↑ "Disease forecasters are convinced there’s a 27% chance of another COVID-like pandemic within 10 years—but experts believe there’s a silver bullet". Eleanor Pringle. https://fortune.com/well/2023/04/18/disease-forecasters-predict-new-covid-like-pandemic-within-10-years/. 



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