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Google Is Publishing Location Data From 131 Countries To Show How Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Working (buzzfeednews.com) 79

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Google is using the location data it collects from billions of smartphones to show how people's movements have changed as governments around the world lock down cities and issue shelter in place orders to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. From a report: Reports generated using this data, which is normally used to show how busy a certain location is on Google Maps, and which Google says does not identify individual people, are freely available on a brand new website called COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. "We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19," wrote Google senior vice president Jen Fitzpatrick and Karen DeSalvo, chief health officer for Google Health, in a blog post published Friday. The data is currently available for 131 countries, and in many locations including the US, you can also access data for individual counties.
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Google Is Publishing Location Data From 131 Countries To Show How Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Working More

Google Is Publishing Location Data From 131 Countries To Show How Coronavirus Lockdowns Are Working

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  • We got every kind of data, however I can't find any data about previous year death numbers (except united kingdom).

    So WTF ?

    The F is, (with limited data (first 3 weeks of march)). In United Kingdom, number of dead people does not change.

    • Obviously. Our "Statistisches Bundestamt" publishes data on everything you could possibly want to know.

      Flu season 2017/18 killed 25,000 people here. Still a fraction of how many die normally each year anyway.

      Oh, and another slashdotter mentioned 2 million dying in the USA in a normal year.

      This whole this is all about flattening the curve though.

      So they can die gradually anyway over the course of months (which will happen in any case, says a recent Slashdot article) instead of all at the same time, so we can

      • Re:I got them for Germany. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @11:16AM (#59904662) Homepage
        I think it's closer to 2.7 million who die annually in the US. Anyway, if the US did nothing, the estimate was up to 2.2 million extra dead this year. Will "flattening the curve" just mean spreading 2.2 million out over a few months? Only if you do it half-heartedly. If you do the restrictions more aggressively, at some point you end up spreading it out past 18 months and then you probably have a vaccine by then. I wish they were more forthcoming with their strategy. I think that in most cases the lockdowns are getting the R0 under 1.0 in most cities, so the virus will subside during the lockdown without infecting the vast majority of the population. Once the number of cases per day gets low enough, I think they'll ease the restrictions. At that point they might be smarter and attempt to use widespread testing and contact tracing with quarantining to contain it, and if it flares up again, they'll put regions back into lockdown. I think that's how it's going to go, in these repeating cycles of lockdowns, until we get a vaccine. Still it means the total amount that die from it will be significantly lower than the "do nothing" scenario. That has to be where Trump and Fauci are coming up with their 100,000 to 240,000 US deaths estimate.

        • Re:I got them for Germany. (Score:5, Informative)

          by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @12:44PM (#59904900)

          "Flattening the curve" means that only the people who die even with medical facilities will actually die.

          Not flattening the curve means that those that could be saved if they got medical treatment will die as well because medical facilites get overwhelmed. That's the difference.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            "Flattening the curve" means that only the people who die even with medical facilities will actually die.

            Not flattening the curve means that those that could be saved if they got medical treatment will die as well because medical facilities get overwhelmed. That's the difference.

            Including people who died for unrelated reasons, such as people having a heart attack and being unable to get a heart cath because the doctors are all sick with coronavirus.

            But more than that, flattening the curve give us more time for researchers to find effective treatments, which can push the death rate down further.

            • Comment removed based on user account deletion

              • We do? Why doesn't the world know?

              • Re: (Score:3)

                by dgatwood ( 11270 )

                We ALREADY have an effective treatment. It's been used successfully thousands of times, but because Trump mentioned it must be bad. Sometimes the anecdotal evidence is so overwhelming that it must be true.

                Are you talking about chloroquine? Because if so, you should understand that the study on that drug is deeply flawed. The treatment was done almost exclusively on people who were not seriously ill. So although they had no deaths (this time — one last time in a smaller test), you would only expect

        • The problem is how deaths are being coded in the system. Right now, if you tested positive for Coronavirus, had no symptoms and then die from, say, a heart attack. Your death goes into the Corona column. Thus the number of dead is not the number of dead from Corona but number of dead while also having Corona. Given that the vast majority of those dying have multiple severe health complications and the average age of those dying matches the average life expectancy, you will find that Corona is not increasing

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            Add the fact that, this being flu season, the daily mortality is probably above the overall annual average.

            Flu season is basically over in the United States. It peaks in February. The elevation you're seeing above the annual average is the effect you're looking for.

            • Add the fact that, this being flu season, the daily mortality is probably above the overall annual average.

              Flu season is basically over in the United States. It peaks in February. The elevation you're seeing above the annual average is the effect you're looking for.

              So far, it was a mild flu season so that could be an affect as well...

              What I would really like to see the media and gov't show is a chart of "deaths from non-Covid reasons" next to the "Covid-related deaths". That would make clear exactly what is happening, one way or another. As is, the Covid-related deaths are shown without any context whatsoever.

        • World wide 40, 000 men and women everyday.

          Source: Blue Oyster Cult

        • Will "flattening the curve" just mean spreading 2.2 million out over a few months?

          You fundamentally don't seem to understand the reason why flattening the curve is important. By spreading out those who *are about to* die, you avoid massive amounts of unnecessary death. Not just death of the sick. Not just death of the elderly. But also death of the injured or those attacked who need hospital care and can't get it because hospitals are full.

          America has one of the highest incidents of heart disease in the world. Imagine giving a death sentence to everyone who has a heart attack. You may st

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hey! ( 33014 )

        In public policy, you never just make choices. You choose between alternatives.

        Unless you have an alternative under which *nobody whatsoever dies*, it's meaningless to compare deaths from COVID-19 to total deaths. What's on the table here are *preventable* deaths.

        If you knew there was a small nuclear bomb in a city which was going to blow up and kill a hundred thousand people, would you not bother looking for it because a hundred thousand is so much less than two million?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Max_W ( 812974 )

        ...and another slashdotter mentioned 2 million dying in the USA in a normal year...

        Actually 2,720,200 die in the United States of America each year, and on average 7,453 daily according to https://www.indexmundi.com/clo... [indexmundi.com]

        In Italy it is 628,400 and 1,722 respectively.

        Unfortunately, we do no get the information from the official sources if the death rate is higher or lower than these average figures currently. And I do not understand why.

        My guess is that it is actually lower, since other dangerous infections are transmitted less due to the quarantine, and there are less deaths f

        • But it could be explained instead of keeping the silence, which may look suspicious to people.

          Everything looks suspicious to those people.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Max_W ( 812974 )
            Still it is the simple question - what was the total number of deaths in the USA in march 2020? Was it more than in march 2019, or in march 2018? Less or about the same?

            This data is normally collected. Perhaps, it is secret now? If yes, it is OK for me. But the number 1000+ persons died per day does not mean much, if it cannot be compared with something. And since on average 7,453 people die on a "normal" day in the USA statistically.

            • Still it is the simple question - what was the total number of deaths in the USA in march 2020? Was it more than in march 2019, or in march 2018? Less or about the same?

              This data is normally collected. Perhaps, it is secret now? If yes, it is OK for me. But the number 1000+ persons died per day does not mean much, if it cannot be compared with something. And since on average 7,453 people die on a "normal" day in the USA statistically.

              Are most of those deaths kind of spread out over the year? Or do they get worse and worse uncontrollably month after month?
              Just look at the numbers. [worldometers.info]
              January we had 259 deaths.
              February we had 3,000
              March we had 50,000

              What else 'normally' does that?
              How many dead do you wan't before you start to take it seriously? Remembering when you start, that months death toll is basically locked in already, the people are already infected/dying. You might slow it down for the next month.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Max_W ( 812974 )
                I absolutely agree with you that it is the serious outbreak of an extremely dangerous new viral infection.

                We also had in the past the bad years of flu and flu-like respiratory infections. I, myself, nearly died from flu once or twice in the past.

                There is a theory that the flu viruses become less aggressive, and that the corona-viruses are taking their place. And that the number of dying from the pneumonia remains about the same every year. But we could not see if it is true without all the figures.
                • The average deaths for flu in Italy is 17k a year/flu season [sciencedirect.com] Italy is already about 15k even with all the things being done and not a lot of sign that it's stopping yet.
                  Just March was over 12k [worldometers.info] Just the last week in March was over 5 1/2 thousand. If it stabilizes here at 5k a week that's way worse than a flu for Italy in just a few more weeks. Is it going to stop by then? Who thinks it would have done that by itself without all the things they are doing to stop it? It's already easily on track to way worse

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by Max_W ( 812974 )
                    I have to agree that it may get too bad in no time. The only hope is that it is somewhat seasonal. Or at least people learn to keep the distace...

      • Although, even with numbers as low as of now the healthcare system is crumbling and there is a global lack of equipment, personnel and resources. The care is already being prioritized everywhere.

        You can compare this to flu or whatnot, but you hardly want to see this thing being as prevalent as common flu, or any other thing you compare this to, that kills more. Deaths are not the point. The core of a society is at danger.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Max_W ( 812974 )
          The physical health of a human depends also on the psychological health. This link is a proven scientific fact.

          When a bank run happens, it does always mean that all the people really need cash at the same time. It could be that some young strong people are still going to the hospital because they are understandably scared. In a normal year they could probably tough it out at home.

          One of the indicators of an epidemic is a growth of the mortality in comparison with the normal days, months, quarters, etc

      • So they can die gradually anyway over the course of months (which will happen in any case, says a recent Slashdot article) instead of all at the same time, so we can all feel good about ourselves and continue not giving a single actual fuck, just like the years before.

        It's OK, I know how to fix it.
        I saw it in a slashdot article.
        Hold my beer...

    • Not hard to find, google gave me https://www.macrotrends.net/co... [macrotrends.net] or around .08% per year x 300M or 240K/year or around 650/day. For context, worldometers reported 968 died yesterday in the US from covid.

      The same site reports UK death rate is slightly higher at .09%/year, UK has around 66M or 59.4K/year or around 160/day. UK reported 560 deaths yesterday from covid.

      So covid daily death rates are now higher than typical average daily death for both US and UK.
    • I'm not sure if this is detailed enough to be helpful but may be worth a look http://euromomo.eu/ [euromomo.eu]

    • The data I can't seem to find without compiling it myself is.
      By state % increase for number of infected by day.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      Here is the data for France, on page 11
      https://www.santepubliquefranc... [santepubliquefrance.fr]

      To summary: excess mortality is statistically significant on a national scale. In the worst hit area, it is very significant (>12 standard deviations). Numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks because of delays in the reporting process. These stats are for all causes of death, so the excess mortality may or may not be the result of COVID-19, but other numbers leave no doubt about that.

      About France, we are hit pretty badly but

  • The link to the site (Score:5, Informative)

    by Pikoro ( 844299 ) <init&init,sh> on Friday April 03, 2020 @11:10AM (#59904640) Homepage Journal

    Since nobody wants to read a buzzfeed article, here's a link directly to the site in reference:
    https://www.google.com/covid19... [google.com]

  • Google is a tech company that will greatly benefit from 5G
    I've been ignoring al lot of social media posts and youtube videos of there being a connection between COVID-19 and 5G. But when I decided to look into this increase of posting.... it helps explain why Bill Gates has set aside MS and the Gates foundation and with earlier concerns of a pandemic to pursue vaccine development and helps explain the unusual speed of spread of COVID-19 and even to an isolated tribe in Brazil.

    I know how slashdot is techie a

  • The real takeaway is what level of restriction is correlated with what level of drop in new cases after 2-3 weeks? Measures take time to work since you can get 2-3 weeks between incubation period, time to serious symptoms, and testing delays.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rho ( 6063 )

      The real takeaway is Google knows where billions of people are at all times, which isn't creepy or invasive whatsoever.

  • now it is an all invasive big brother and a shitty advertising infested search engine, got to pay for all that spying somehow eh

  • Looks like a load of mobile data tracking data from Android phones showing where people have been, and shock, horror, surprise having lockdowns in 131 countries, where people can't go out and facilities are closed, it shows that people in a 131 countries didn't go out to restaurants, cinemas and other recreational areas! Well paint my ass pink and call me Susan, what a revalation!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      So looking at my area, the places that are closed have seen a sharp dropoff, but retail still has plenty of foot traffic.

      With all the commercial places closed, it shows people actually congregating in parks.

      So the 'shelter in place' order is changing where people are coming together, but they are still coming together and thus falling well short of the point.

    • Well, the revelation is that people actually follow the recommendations and don't go out.

      To be honest, to me that is surprising.

      • Well, the revelation is that people actually follow the recommendations and don't go out.

        To be honest, to me that is surprising.

        Agreed. And this is how the conversation will go...
        The Optimist: This goes to show that people are smarter and better than we think.
        The Pessimist: Sheeple.

  • Google could do WAY more. They already have semantic knowledge of high density locations such as clubs, department stores, concert halls, typically crowded intersections and subway stations, etc. They can calculate in real time the degree of crowding in an area. While it sounds nice to a government perhaps to see kpi like these off reports, actually it seems useless to me.

    I would much rather get information about where not to be, or know if hot zones are near me or on my route. What time is the supermarket

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sinij ( 911942 )

      Google could do WAY more.

      Think this through. Is there any chance if Google allowed to do X now, they won't continue doing this after COVID is long gone?

      • One assumes that anything that you do not like is already being done by them or by whoever buys the data off them. This has been true for over a decade so I am suprised that you are suprised. The mobile phone networks also have this data, the NSA have this data, Uncle Tom Cobley and his brother have this data. Where have you been?

    • Even better would simply be able to flag to google positive infection, and it would alert everyone that had crossed your route, with weighting for say, the vegetable area in the super market. Or food delivery. Or whatever.

      Of course, this would be rife with abuse and false flags and panic. But in an optimal world would work great.

      • This is how the South Korean tracking system works already. Also in China but apparently because we hate them so much it is pointless discussing the technology that they use.

  • You couldn't, you know, just link directly to the site? Had to put us through that extra detour, didn't you?

    • Obligatory "you must be new around here" - there is always some site between you and the subject, presumably they get a kickback but who knows.

  • Love the way Kentucky is 30 points positive for additional park and related leisure. Yee-haw, we got the day off!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Same for my area. It is frustrating as my area is afflicted, but not bad yet and we have the chance to avoid the worst of it, but people are still gathering wherever they can, barely phased by the shutdown of more popular recreational venues.

    • Love the way Kentucky is 30 points positive for additional park and related leisure. Yee-haw, we got the day off!

      Well, yeah; you aren't allowed to engage in productive economic activity or preventative medical care, but you are allowed to go jogging. The whole thing is Python-esque.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Love the way Kentucky is 30 points positive for additional park and related leisure. Yee-haw, we got the day off!

        Well, yeah; you aren't allowed to engage in productive economic activity or preventative medical care, but you are allowed to go jogging. The whole thing is Python-esque.

        To be fair, speaking with my Tennesseean hat on, my gut says that unless you're in a decently sized city, the aveage population density in Kentucky is low enough that the increased use of parks probably doesn't matter much. Now if we see thousands of people having a picnic on the steps of the Parthenon in Nashville's Centennial Park, that's another matter.

        That's why it would be really useful to have metrics like "average number of times that each person was within [n] feet of [k] people" for some values of

  • Well, it's going to show me going to stores more now that I can't get vital stuff online or via pickup anymore.

    And in keeping with the whole Python-esque nature of this situation, stores are prioritizing what inventory they can get for in store purchase, not available for shipping, not available for pickup. Um ...

    (Due to family medical issues, I was getting everything I could via shipping and pickup before this all happened, and now I can't, not nearly as much. Sucks.)

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