{"id":18425,"date":"2020-04-13T15:03:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T15:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/pnr\/?p=18425"},"modified":"2026-02-03T18:42:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:42:05","slug":"flu-near-you-spread-the-word-not-the-flu","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/flu-near-you-spread-the-word-not-the-flu\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu Near You: \u201cSpread the word.\u00a0 Not the flu\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The flu is a worrisome illness that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/about\/burden\/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm\">kills thousands in the United States annually<\/a>.\u00a0 Have you ever wondered how bad an influenza-like sickness, like the flu, is spreading in your respective community?\u00a0 Well, the citizen science project \u201cFlu Near You\u201d helps to answer that question while at the same time it is a preventative measure that could prepare you to help prevent the next pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The idea behind Flu Near You was conceived by epidemiologists from both Harvard University and Boston Children\u2019s Hospital.\u00a0 Flu Near You leverages the power of the crowd to provide real-time information about flu-like-illness in your respective living or working areas.\u00a0 Basically, anybody can participate in tracking flu-like-illnesses in your area.<\/p>\n<p>This is how Flu Near You works.\u00a0 All you need is internet access and a smartphone or computer.\u00a0 On their <a href=\"https:\/\/scistarter.org\/nlm\/flu-near-you-nlm\">SciStarter project page<\/a> or on their <a href=\"https:\/\/flunearyou.org\/#!\/\">own project page<\/a>, participants are asked to complete a quick, like 30 seconds maximum, weekly survey to share whether you feel healthy or sick.\u00a0 Participation is voluntary and your individual report is treated confidentially.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of your data collection, you are given a health dashboard of your community that shows how well your community and neighboring ones are doing flu-wise.\u00a0 The following health dashboard shows the health of my community in Seattle as of Friday, April 10<sup>th<\/sup>, 2020, noon PT.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18426\" src=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/pnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/04\/flu-near-you.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1663\" height=\"742\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/04\/flu-near-you.jpg 1663w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/04\/flu-near-you-300x134.jpg 300w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/04\/flu-near-you-1024x457.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/04\/flu-near-you-768x343.jpg 768w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/04\/flu-near-you-1536x685.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1663px) 100vw, 1663px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So, what happens with your data?\u00a0 Scientists will use your data, along with thousands of other reports, to generate local and national maps of influenza-like illness. This important crowd-sourced information provides public health officials and researchers with real-time, anonymous information that could help prevent the next pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Participating in a Flu Near You can help keep our communities healthy and strong!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The flu is a worrisome illness that kills thousands in the United States annually.\u00a0 Have you ever wondered how bad an influenza-like sickness, like the flu, is spreading in your respective community?\u00a0 Well, the citizen science project \u201cFlu Near You\u201d helps to answer that question while at the same time it is a preventative measure&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/flu-near-you-spread-the-word-not-the-flu\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/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":[236,54,7,5],"tags":[247,245,246],"class_list":["post-18425","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-citizen-science","category-data-science","category-public-health-2","category-training-education","tag-citizen","tag-flu-near-you","tag-scistarter"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18425","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=18425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18427,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18425\/revisions\/18427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}