Let's hear it for crowdsourcing!
If you have a smartphone, you're likely contributing to the enormous amount of data which are allowing journalists to analyze where people are moving around, even if they've been told not to. Check out this amazing set of maps from yesterday's New York Times. Here, you can see all kinds of geography and sociology at play. For example, I can tell you for sure that people are still moving around in eastern New Mexico because in many of those communities the nearest grocery store might be more than 20 miles away. However, in communities that aren't food deserts, these data can also show us how seriously people are (or are not) taking what epidemiologists are telling us all about the spread of the virus. Also, check out this app. Much like the amazing Mapaton, which allowed Mexico City residents to design their own city's public transit plan by showing who went where on thousands of private transit trips, the COVID Symptom Tracker is collecting millions of people's self-reported data on how well they're feeling. This will allow for a real-time tracking of SYMPTOMS, instead of waiting for test results. As we all know, COVID-19 tests are scarce in the United States and elsewhere, can take up to 15 days to provide results and are only being administered to people who already show serious enough symptoms to land in the hospital here in Minnesota. I've signed up myself and I've been reporting that I'm fortunate, so far, to be feeling good! This is all brought to you by geographers through the majesty of GIS. Have I mentioned lately what an awesome career cartography is now, and how it's one of the fastest growing fields of employment? Hope you're all well!
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