COVID Tracking Project
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
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| name = COVID Tracking Project
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| screenshot = The COVID Tracking Project screenshot.png
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| url = {{Official URL}}
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| type = Collaborative volunteer-run effort
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| content_license = Data and website content are published under a [https://covidtracking.com/about-data/license CC BY 4.0] license.
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| author = Alexis Madrigal
| editor = Erin Kissane
| key_people = Robinson Meyer, Jeff Hammerbacher{{Cite web|url=https://covidtracking.com/about|title = About Us}}
| launch_date = {{Start date and age|2020|03|07}}
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| current_status = Inactive
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{{short description|Collaborative online project aimed at tracking COVID-19 in the United States}}
The COVID Tracking Project was a collaborative volunteer-run effort to track the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. It maintained a daily-updated dataset of state-level information related to the outbreak, including counts of the number of cases, tests, hospitalizations, and deaths, the racial and ethnic demographic breakdowns of cases and deaths, and cases and deaths in long-term care facilities.{{Cite news |last=Jin |first=Beatrice |url=https://www.politico.com:443/interactives/2020/coronavirus-testing-by-state-chart-of-new-cases/ |title=How many coronavirus cases have been found in each U.S. state |date=March 16, 2020 |work=Politico |access-date=March 30, 2020 |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Sohn |first=Emily |url=https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/covid-tracking-project.php |title=How the COVID Tracking Project fills the public health data gap |date=March 24, 2020 |work=Columbia Journalism Review |access-date=March 30, 2020 |language=en}}{{Cite web|title=The Long-Term Care COVID Tracker|url=https://asprtracie.hhs.gov/technical-resources/resource/9283/the-long-term-care-covid-tracker|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028005516/https://asprtracie.hhs.gov/technical-resources/resource/9283/the-long-term-care-covid-tracker|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 28, 2020|access-date=2021-08-07|website=ASPR TRACIE|language=en}}
Data was updated by hand from state health department webpages, press conferences, and outreach to state health officials.{{Cite news |last1=Buchanan |first1=Larry |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/17/us/coronavirus-testing-data.html |title=U.S. Lags in Coronavirus Testing After Slow Response to Outbreak |date=March 17, 2020 |work=The New York Times |access-date=March 30, 2020 |last2=Lai |first2=K. K. Rebecca |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |last3=McCann |first3=Allison}}{{Cite web|title=Analysis & updates {{!}} How We Entered COVID-19 Testing and Outcomes Data Every Day for a Year|url=https://covidtracking.com/analysis-updates/how-we-entered-covid-19-testing-outcomes-data|access-date=2021-08-07|website=The COVID Tracking Project|language=en}} The project reported data from all states, the District of Columbia, and five US territories.
History
In early March 2020, two journalists, Robinson Meyer and Alexis Madrigal, started constructing a COVID-19 tracking spreadsheet for their investigation in The Atlantic, after not finding a unified official source for testing data in the United States. Around the same time, data scientist Jeff Hammerbacher was independently working on a similar tracking spreadsheet, and the COVID Tracking Project was formed when these two projects merged on March 7, 2020, and the public was invited to contribute. Madrigal leads the project, and Erin Kissane joined as its managing editor; Hammerbacher remains an advisor and volunteer.{{Cite web |url=https://covidtracking.com/ |title=About The COVID Tracking Project |website=The COVID Tracking Project |language=en |access-date=March 30, 2020}}
The project eventually grew to about 30 paid staffers and 250-300 active volunteers.{{Cite web|last=Cohen|first=Rachel|date=2021-02-19|title=Exit Interview: How the COVID Tracking Project Stepped Up When The Trump Administration Didn't|url=https://www.gq.com/story/covid-tracking-project-exit-interview|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-04|website=GQ|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219190054/https://www.gq.com/story/covid-tracking-project-exit-interview |archive-date=February 19, 2021 }} Data continued to be entered using a spreadsheet, with an API developed for easier public sharing. It expanded the range of data points it was gathering as they were reported by a majority of states.{{Cite web|title=Analysis & updates: How We Made The COVID Tracking Project|url=https://covidtracking.com/analysis-updates/category/how-we-made-the-project|access-date=2021-08-07|website=The COVID Tracking Project|language=en}}
In May 2020, the CDC released their first dashboard with state-by-state breakdowns of cases and tests. The project published a comparison of the data compiled by the CDC with the data reported by the states.{{Cite web|last=Madrigal|first=Robinson Meyer, Alexis C.|date=2020-05-17|title=State and Federal Data on COVID-19 Testing Don't Match Up|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/cdc-publishing-covid-19-test-data/611764/|access-date=2020-05-19|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US}}
On February 1, 2021, the organization announced that it would cease its data compilation activities and release its final daily update on March 7, 2021, citing the improvement of government COVID-19 data.{{Cite web|title=Analysis & updates {{!}} It's Time: The COVID Tracking Project Will Soon Come to an End|url=https://covidtracking.com/analysis-updates/covid-tracking-project-end-march-7|access-date=2021-02-03|website=The COVID Tracking Project|language=en}} On July 29, 2021, the University of California, San Francisco and The Atlantic announced that the COVID Tracking Project's archives would become part of the university library's permanent collection.{{Cite web|title=UCSF to House COVID Tracking Project, a National Database Donated by The Atlantic|url=https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/07/421151/ucsf-house-covid-tracking-project-national-database-donated-atlantic|access-date=2021-08-07|website=UCSF to House COVID Tracking Project, a National Database Donated by The Atlantic {{!}} UC San Francisco|date=July 29, 2021 |language=en}}
Impact
The COVID Tracking Project's data and analysis became a definitive source of COVID-19 data for the United States.{{Cite web|title=Analysis & updates {{!}} Measuring Our Impact at The COVID Tracking Project|url=https://covidtracking.com/analysis-updates/measuring-our-impact|access-date=2021-08-07|website=The COVID Tracking Project|language=en}} The data was used in over 80,000 news reports and 1,000 academic articles.{{Cite web|title="COVID Tracking Project" - Google News Search|url=https://www.google.com/search?q=%22COVID+Tracking+Project%22&tbm=nws|access-date=2021-08-07|website=www.google.com}}{{Cite web|title=COVID Tracking Project - Google Scholar|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,33&q=%22covid+tracking+project%22&btnG=|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-07|website=scholar.google.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807185640/https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,33&q=%22covid+tracking+project%22&btnG= |archive-date=August 7, 2021 }} Many federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have cited data from the COVID Tracking Project, as have both the Trump administration and the Biden administration.{{Cite web|date=2020-09-02|title=COVID-19 Secondary data and statistics|url=https://www.cdc.gov/library/researchguides/2019novelcoronavirus/datastatistics.html|access-date=2021-08-07|website=www.cdc.gov|language=en-us}}{{Cite web|date=2020-05-10|title=Wayback Machine - Opening Up America Again|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Testing-Overview.pdf|url-status=dead|access-date=2021-08-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510082953/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Testing-Overview.pdf?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wh|archive-date=May 10, 2020}}{{Cite web|date=|title=National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness|url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121195701/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf |archive-date=January 21, 2021 }} In June 2020, the CDC released a report stating that The COVID Tracking Project's race and ethnicity data may be more complete than the agency's dataset.{{Cite journal|last=Stokes|first=Erin K.|date=2020|title=Coronavirus Disease 2019 Case Surveillance — United States, January 22–May 30, 2020|url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6924e2.htm|journal=MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report|language=en-us|volume=69|issue=24|pages=759–765|doi=10.15585/mmwr.mm6924e2|pmid=32555134|issn=0149-2195|pmc=7302472}} The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices used the project's long-term care data to inform its phased vaccine allocation recommendations.{{Cite web|date=2021-01-20|title=Evidence Table for COVID-19 Vaccines Allocation in Phase 1a of the Vaccination Program {{!}} CDC|url=https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/vacc-specific/covid-19/evidence-table.html|access-date=2021-08-07|website=www.cdc.gov|language=en-us}}
The COVID Tracking Project received multiple awards for its work, including a Sigma Delta Chi Award for Specialized Journalism Site, a Sigma Award for Data Journalism, and a New York University American Journalism Online Award for Best Data Visualization.{{Cite web|title=Sigma Delta Chi Awards - Society of Professional Journalists|url=https://www.spj.org/sdxa20.asp|access-date=2021-08-07|website=www.spj.org}}{{Cite web|last=|title=Sigma Award - Projects|url=https://sigmaawards.org/projects/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-07|website=The Sigma Awards|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507182643/http://sigmaawards.org/projects/ |archive-date=May 7, 2021 }}{{Cite web|title=American Journalism Online Awards - 2021 Winners|url=https://journalism.nyu.edu/graduate/programs/american-journalism-online-masters/awards/2021-winners/|access-date=2021-08-07|website=NYU Journalism|language=en-US}}
References
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External links
- {{official}}
- [https://covidtracking.com/data/charts Charts and visualizations]
- [https://covidtracking.com/data Data by states]
- [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/e/2PACX-1vRwAqp96T9sYYq2-i7Tj0pvTf6XVHjDSMIKBdZHXiCGGdNC0ypEU9NbngS8mxea55JuCFuua1MUeOj5/pubhtml Daily case count] spreadsheet
- [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRMTptXT8ipOUZwfQtDTbA3al8OWlitxvf1Vj-OwkyY5jJi7EiA4qeK6K5lKwkNP5V7fT1PMuDnYzq7/pubhtml# Racial demographics] spreadsheet
- [https://covidtracking.com/data/api API]
{{COVID-19 pandemic in the United States}}
Category:2020 establishments in the United States
Category:American medical websites
Category:COVID-19 pandemic in the United States