No new COVID-19 data sources caught my eye this week, so I dug into the archives for a couple of old favorites.
- Household Pulse Survey by the U.S. Census (featured on 8/16/20): Starting at the end of April 2020, the U.S. Census has run a survey program to collect data on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the lives of American residents. The survey results include questions on education, employment, food security, health, and housing. The Census has now conducted three phases of this survey, going through April 2021.
- Searchable database of federal COVID-19 purchases (featured on 12/13/20): Since March 2020, ProPublica has tracked where federal government spending on the pandemic is going. The database represents $38 billion, 17,734 government contracts, and 8,070 individual vendors as of May 7. Data can be sorted by spending categories, vendor types, and contract sizes.
- COVID-19 diverse sources (featured on 3/28/21): NPR journalists from the organization’s Source of the Week project have compiled this database of COVID-19 experts from diverse backgrounds. The database is divided into 13 major categories, including virology, disease origin, health policy, racial/ethnic health disparities, and more.
- HHS celebrity tracker (featured on 11/1/20): In late October, POLITICO’s Dan Diamond released an HHS document called the “PSA Celebrity Tracker,” which health officials were using to determine which of America’s favorite people may be useful in an ad campaign encouraging the nation to be less negative about COVID-19. (Here’s more context from POLITICO on the tracker.)