The map shows an estimated percentage of people with COVID-19 symptoms, not confirmed cases, Facebook said.
Facebook/ Screenshot by CNET
Facebook has partnered with health researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to help forecast coronavirus activity across the US. The social media giant on Monday launched a map that shows county-level data on people with COVID-19 symptoms, not confirmed cases, across the US.
The data comes from a CMU Delphi Research Center survey taken by Facebook users that asks them to self-report COVID-19 symptoms that they or someone in their household have experienced in the last 24 hours. Facebook said a new group of people over age 18 in the US are invited to participate in the survey every day.
“The world has faced pandemics before, but this time we have a new superpower: the ability to gather and share data for good,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post. “If we use it responsibly, I’m optimistic that data can help the world respond to this health crisis and get us started on the road to recovery.”
More to come.
