{"id":18311,"date":"2020-02-18T17:10:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T17:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/pnr\/?p=18311"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:40:23","slug":"dataflash-telling-the-real-coronavirus-story-with-data","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/dataflash-telling-the-real-coronavirus-story-with-data\/","title":{"rendered":"DataFlash: Telling the Real Coronavirus Story with Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new coronavirus (i.e. COVID-19) has some people in the United States worried.\u00a0 As of February 18th<\/sup>, 2020, there are more than 70,000 confirmed cases in China right now.\u00a0 The outbreak is serious, but if you\u2019re living in the United States, the odds are that the regular flu is a much more serious risk to your health than the coronavirus.\u00a0 The CDC reported that in the 2017-2018 year<\/a>, that there were over 60,000 influenza\/flu associated deaths in the United States alone.\u00a0 On February 18th<\/sup>, 2020 coronavirus fatalities peaked at 1,875 in Asia alone with one death outside of Asia so far.<\/p>\n

Again, according to the CDC<\/a>, the risk of coronavirus infection to the general public of the United States is considered \u201clow at this time\u201d as the general American public is unlikely exposed to this virus.\u00a0 This risk of infection changes of course if let\u2019s say you are an American healthcare worker caring for patients with COVID-19 or if you have recently traveled to China.\u00a0 According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases<\/a>, care like washing your hands frequently as you can and staying away from crowded places where people are coughing and sneezing are more effective than wearing face masks.\u00a0 According to Dr. Fauci the only people who need masks are those who are already infected to keep them from exposing others.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A great data visualization\/data dashboard on the coronavirus is one that was put out by Baltimore\u2019s very own John Hopkins University<\/a>.\u00a0 Unlike some media outlets and social media, this data visualization tells a technically accurate data story of what\u2019s going on with the coronavirus outbreak worldwide.\u00a0 It takes a balanced and factual approach at looking at not only looking at the number of deaths (i.e. 1,875 as of 02\/18\/20), but the remarkable number of people who have recovered (i.e. 13,147 as of 02\/18\/20) from this viral infection.\u00a0 The map on the dashboard accurately locates and quantifies the number of confirmed coronavirus cases with China having the most at 72,439 as of February 18th<\/sup>, 2020.\u00a0 Finally, like all good data stories, the John Hopkins data visualization\/story cites credible data sources like WHO, CDC, ECDC, NHC, and DXY in an attempt to be transparent and trustworthy.\u00a0 All in all, this data visualization\/story of the coronavirus makes a good attempt at a truthful depiction of the outbreak that is devoid of exaggeration and of most negative personal biases.<\/p>\n

Data Citation:<\/u><\/p>\n

John Hopkins University (2020). Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by John Hopkins CSSE.\u00a0 https:\/\/gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/opsdashboard\/index.html#\/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new coronavirus (i.e. COVID-19) has some people in the United States worried.\u00a0 As of February 18th, 2020, there are more than 70,000 confirmed cases in China right now.\u00a0 The outbreak is serious, but if you\u2019re living in the United States, the odds are that the regular flu is a much more serious risk to… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2945,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[54,43,9,7,5],"tags":[231,232,79,165],"class_list":["post-18311","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-data-science","category-emergency-preparedness","category-health-literacy","category-public-health-2","category-training-education","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-data-storytelling","tag-data-visualization"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18312,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311\/revisions\/18312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}