Viz in the Time of Coronavirus
by Gabriella Runnels and Macon McLean
The coronavirus currently known as COVID-19 has obviously dominated the news cycle for the last month, and with this surge of stories has come a bevy of data visualizations, many of which are informative and concerning in equal measures. With this in mind, we wanted to share a list of ten COVID-19-related data visualizations that we find interesting.
All of us here at Opex wish you the best — stay safe!
CovidActNow.org uses a combination of data visualization and predictive analytics to show U.S. political leaders what the outcomes of various “what-if” scenarios will likely be in their states. You can click on any state to see the projected hospitalizations and fatalities resulting from different policy responses, including Social Distancing, Shelter in Place, and Wuhan-style Lockdown.
The global pandemic has had a significant impact on large and small businesses around the world. SafeGraph shows consumer foot-traffic data for various industries (e.g., airports, restaurants, and hotels) and brands (e.g. Costco, Target, and McDonald’s).
Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Oxford, Boston Children’s Hospital, and other institutions have collaborated to create a stunning visual map that shows the spread of COVID-19 across the globe over time.
UNESCO’s International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence has recently published a “Coronavirus Watch” website, featuring a real-time coronavirus newsfeed, a visualization of the spread of the virus, a social distancing simulator, and other useful data and visualization tools for staying updated on the virus. The website also links to the Worldometer Status Report, which shows the total number of cases and deaths around the world.
Bing’s new COVID-19 tracker shows visitors high-level stats and trends, a visual map with cases by location, a newsfeed with top recent articles about the virus, and a sleek interface to boot. You can even download the Bing app to stay posted on the latest updates.
This YouTube video is a great primer on COVID-19’s growth and exponential virus spread in general. Check it out to get a better understanding of exactly why it’s important to flatten the curve.
This dashboard by ArcGIS is a great look at updated data on confirmed cases all across the world. The data is provided by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
This Washington Post article has some excellent interactive visualizations to show the longitudinal impact of various policy responses and mitigation measures, along with some fun, easy-to-understand simulations that demonstrate the spread of a condition throughout a given mobile populace.
As coronavirus takes its hold on the population, ill patients occupy more and more hospital beds. In extreme circumstances, it’s possible that patients can outnumber beds, possibly by a significant margin. This New York Times article demonstrates the specifics of this bed/patient imbalance with some informative scenario-based visualizations.
A company called Unacast, privacy be damned, recently launched a “scoreboard” powered by cell phone location data that shows county-by-county adherence to social distancing protocols. By measuring an aggregated reduction in movement, Unacast can grade counties and states on their social distancing skills.
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