What Covid-19 Data Should I Pay Attention to?
Elemental executive editor Anna Maltby interviewed Eleanor Murray, ScD, co-director of the Epidemiology Covid-19 Response Corps at the Boston University about how to successfully use national, state, and local Covid-19 data to inform your life. Here’s a quick excerpt.
Elemental: Where is the best place to find Covid-19 data for your area? And how local should you be going?
Murray: For most places, your state health department is a good first stop, but many states are so large that this won’t be specific enough. Local data from your city (or from your metropolitan area in larger cities like New York) will be more useful in those states. Your local health department may have a website that provides these numbers, or your state health department website might provide local numbers as well.
Aside from just generally staying up to date about what’s happening in your area, when is it useful to look at local Covid-19 data?
Local Covid-19 data is most useful when you are making decisions about whether to engage in higher-risk activities, such as indoor dining, attending religious services in person, or visiting friends or family in their homes. When Covid rates are low in your area, these may be reasonable to do (potentially with some safety precautions such as masks), whereas during a surge they should be avoided.
Read the full interview below.
