The COVID Tracking Project is a volunteer effort to collect the best available data on what the hell is happening in terms of tests, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths every day. They have been running non-stop for almost a year now. They are the best publicly available data in the United States.
They are ending their efforts next month:
Some important news about CTP: After a year of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting COVID-19 data for the United States—and months of preparation for what we’re about to announce—we’re ending our data compilation work on March 7. https://t.co/HtM9c0lwDB
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) February 1, 2021
It is not because the pandemic is over.
It is because they can trust that the Federal Government can and will be a reliable counter of critical things and also a reliable distributor of the data that they have assembled.
Counting is critical. It is a baseline competency to identify where things are good and where things are bad. It is a baseline skill to identify where things are getting better now and where things are getting worse now. It is a baseline function. And the federal government should have both deep expertise in counting things, the skilled staff to do so, the relationships with the relevant non-national governmental units and the cash to surge resources into counting things on a daily basis when there is a pressing need to do so.
The COVID Tracking Project on its own is a massive success.
The COVID Tracking Project as the most reliable source of near-ish real time data is a stunning indictment of our society. A bunch of volunteers performing a key, essential and basic function for over a year into a national emergency because the government was unwilling to do so is stunning.
Now we’re just getting back to plausibly competent governance again.
Mike in NC
Yes, I don’t expect President Joe Biden to tease reporters with fake stories about big burly men with tears in their eyes who call him “Sir”.
WaterGirl
Good things are happening.
Major Major Major Major
Wow! Quite a symbol.
SiubhanDuinne
An old Alka-Seltzer jingle keeps going through my brain:
Such a relief to have basic competency back at the levers of government!
And I hope Anne Laurie links to this post tomorrow morning in her daily roundup of Covid news, for the benefit of readers who keep a different set of hours.
japa21
Which reminds me. Has the Biden administration started changing the reporting back to the CDC, or is that private firm still handling that?
TS (the original)
I read the link in the tweet. Shame they didn’t write the obvious reason – We now have a government able to do its job without political interference.
Also this paragraph
This was always going to happen with a Biden administration – it doesn’t need any increased scrutiny – federal sources are once again doing their job.
They’ve done a great job, but on completion should be explaining exactly why they are no longer needed.
Ken
@japa21: I’m also expecting to see revisions – upward – to last year’s published figures, once the administration gets the original data.
Kristine
It feels so good to enjoy isn’t the right word but oh well government and related updates again.
planetjanet
I am ambivalent about this development. Certainly it is a sign of confidence in good government. But have their numbers been lining up with the government’s after only a couple of weeks? Surely it will take more time to get the bugs out of the system.
WaterGirl
@planetjanet: They announced a date that is basically a month from now. That seems like time to get the official new one up and running and some time to run them in parallel.
The new kids on the block care enough about competence that if they have any concerns, they could ask these guys to run theirs for a little bit longer.
TS (the original)
@planetjanet:
They are going to continue until March – from the link
They also mentioned a couple of positive items that were happening in December – presumably under the trump administration.
OzarkHillbilly
Ok, I am a died in the wool DEM. But DEMs aren’t perfect, I know because I have been lied to by DEMs. Steve Stenger is in prison for his lies. Personally, I think it is just as important for us to hold DEMs to account as GOPs.
OK, I lied. It is even more important.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
In my innocent childhood, I believed that little ditty was about doing number two.
trollhattan
Hey Ohio folks, might want to check into PR firms your governor may have an ownership stake in, or perhaps are owned by supporters and friends. He wants to “stimulate” them.
Narrator: “This will not work.”
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
lol
artem1s
these folk remind me of the early days of the Traitor’s administration when so many agencies and academic institutions scrambled to back up and protect their data. It’s nice to know that spirit wasn’t diminished by 4 years of terrorism against the truth. Joe should give these folks a medal of honor. they should get nominated for a Nobel Prize. they certainly deserve it more than Rush Limbaugh.
debbie
@trollhattan:
Yeah, I heard about that. It won’t be getting past the RWNJ-dominated state legislature, that’s for sure. ??