Featured sources, Aug. 30
Charity Navigator is a database that compiles and evaluates charities based on their financial health and accountability.
Read MoreMonth: August 2020
New reporting requirements for nursing homes, hospitals, labs
Last Tuesday, CMS announced that nursing homes are required to test their staff and offer to test their residents when a COVID-19 outbreak occurs. Facilities that don’t test adequately can be fined. These new requirements follow the recent large-scale distribution of antigen tests to nursing homes, a move I’ve discussed in previous issues.
Read MoreCOVID-19 K-12 data continue to be patchwork
Since I reviewed COVID-19 data in public school systems last week, a few things have changed. A couple of updates to state sources and independent dashboards.
Read MoreHow are colleges and universities reporting COVID-19 data?
Across the country—and despite the warnings of numerous faculty members and public health leaders—colleges are reopening. Freshmen are returning to campus eager to meet their classmates, and upperclassmen are returning eager to see friends after months in their hometowns. For this issue, I surveyed the COVID-19 dashboards of 50 higher education institutions across the country.
Read MoreCOVID source callout: New Jersey
New Jersey reports COVID-19 demographic data in three different places.
Read MoreFeatured sources, Aug. 23
Featured sources for Aug. 23 include health care system capacity, remdesivir allocation, and White House reports.
Read MoreMarch for the dead, fight for the living
Earlier this weekend, I attended a protest in New York City called, “March for the Dead.” The event sought to memorialize New Yorkers who died of COVID-19 and demand that the federal government better address the realities of this pandemic and protect vulnerable Americans.
Read MoreNo, hospitalization data isn’t switching back to the CDC
The CDC is developing a new data system which will be more efficient for both hospitals and data users. After the new system is complete, the CDC will once again collect and report hospitalization data. But nothing is changing hands right now.
Read MoreData on schools reopening lag the actual reopening of schools
As conversations on school reopening heighten at both national and local levels, a data journalist like myself has to ask: what data do we have on the topic? Is it possible to track how school reopening is impacting COVID-19 outbreaks, or vice versa? The answer is, as with any national question about COVID-19, the data are spotty. It’s possible to track cases and deaths at the county level, but no source comprehensively tracks testing at a level more local than the state. It is impossible to compare percent positivity rates—that crucial metric many districts are using to determine whether they can safely reopen—both broadly and precisely across the country.
Read MoreSource callout: New Mexico
New Mexico reports race and ethnicity data in a rather confusing manner.
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