In April 2020, FERN reporter Leah Douglas started tracking COVID-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants, food processing facilities, and farms. On September 2, Douglas announced that the project is shutting down.
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I invited Philip Nelson to contribute a post this week after reading his Tweets about his ongoing challenges in accessing his state’s hospitalization data. Basically, after Philip publicized a backend data service that enabled users to see daily COVID-19 patient numbers by individual South Carolina hospital, the state restricted this service’s use—essentially making the data impossible for outside researchers to analyze.
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I recently checked out the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) COVID-19 data page for the first time in a few months. And it has gotten a serious renovation during that time.
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Many states have paused their school COVID-19 case reporting for the summer—and a few have stopped reporting school cases entirely. Hawaii appears to be an exception: this state actually improved its reporting for the new school year.
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We’ve noted in recent months that several states have scaled down their COVID-19 reporting: states are providing fewer metrics, updating their dashboards less frequently, or both. According to the UCLA COVID Behind Bars data project, these changes are also hitting state carceral agencies—responsible for reporting COVID-19 cases in prisons and jails—right as Delta causes new outbreaks in these facilities.
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Utah hasn’t hit 70% adult vaccinations yet—but a recent data error led state officials to erroneously announce the benchmark had been hit. Spencer Cox, Utah’s governor, posted an apology on Twitter that drew attention for his commitment to transparency and accountability.
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In the June 6 issue, one of our featured sources was a page from the federal government’s vaccine.gov site, providing an extensive list of rewards for Americans who got their shots—ranging from free Krispy Kreme donuts to a United Airlines sweepstakes. Now, however, that same page only offers a small list of support options for Americans who may need assistance in making their appointments. These include childcare support and free rides from Uber and Lyft; still valuable information, but a huge change from the previous page.
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The Community Profile Reports, those extensive PDF reports and Excel files that contain everything from vaccination coverage to hospital capacity, are now published on Tuesdays and Fridays only. (Previously, these reports were posted every day.)
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The CDC’s county-level vaccination map does paint a stark picture of vaccination disparities in the U.S., with the Northeast and West coast notably darker blue than parts of the South and Midwest. However, the CDC’s UI leaves much to be desired.
Read MoreSince early January, the COVID-19 Data Dispatch has maintained a page of detailed annotations on all the major sources for vaccination data in the U.S. This includes government sources (the CDC, all 50 states, and D.C.), along with a few notable news publications and independent dashboards. The page is now switching to an every-other-week update schedule from every week.
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