The U.S. Still Doesn’t Know How To Track A Pandemic | FiveThirtyEight

CEID Faculty Dr. Ellie Murray weighs in on data reporting systems for COVID-19 in the US:

“After not knowing how many COVID-19 cases were going unreported in spring 2020, we were then asking how many people lacked the tests they needed. Even now, two years into the pandemic, this is still a challenge because the U.S. does not provide demographic data on testing, Murray said.

‘We don’t collect reasons for seeking a test,’ she said. ‘We don’t collect age, race, ethnicity, occupation of people who seek a test’ If this data was available, those numbers could be used to determine which essential occupations are leading to more exposures, which groups need testing but can’t access it, and other important trends…”

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