Data and COVID-19

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COVID-19

Read our response to COVID-19 and view a selection of resources we’ve compiled from the data community to help better understand, monitor, and mitigate the pandemic.

In the context of the current health crisis, we expect many changes in the development data ecosystem. These include delays in planned censuses and surveys, reduced capacity within National Statistics Offices, along with a number of ethical and responsible data issues, as governments and public health professionals grapple with identifying new sources of data on COVID-19 and private companies offer up their assistance. During this challenging time, data sharing and collaboration between academia, governments, civil society, and the private sector is critical to how we better monitor, understand, and help to mitigate this pandemic. In response to this, we at TReNDS we will be deepening our work to address these issues in our core competency areas, including data governance of what is potentially very sensitive personal data, legal data sharing issues and how to negotiate fair and balanced partnership agreements, encouraging epistemic communities to establish standards and share best practices, expanding research and innovations, and offering practical advice and advocacy, including the value of timely data for critical decision-making. We are open to suggestions on projects, new areas of research, and collaboration and invite you to reach out directly at trends@unsdsn.org.


COVID-19 Resources

In response to COVID-19 and as part of its Contracts for Data Collaboration initiative (C4DC), we’ve gathered and analyzed example data sharing agreements (DSAs) that have been used to share MNO data for health applications to help guide other data actors considering similar arrangements.

We’ve also rounded up a selection of resources on what the data for development community is doing in response to the pandemic. See below:

Available Data

COVID-19 Global Cases (CSSE at Johns Hopkins University)

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – Statistics and Research (Our World in Data)

Covid-19 Data from the World Bank

COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response (UNESCO)

World Health Organization’s Situation Reports

Coronavirus Data (EU Open Data Portal)

The COVID Tracking Project

Coronavirus Tracked (Financial Times)

Coronavirus in the United States (USA Facts)

Covid-19 Stats (Statista)


Publications and Research

Demographic Science Aids in Understanding the Spread and Fatality Rates of COVID-19 (University of Oxford and Nuffield College)

COVID-19 Outbreak Response: First Assessment of Mobility Changes in Italy Following Lockdown (ISI Foundation, University of Turin, and Cuebiq Inc)

Early Epidemiological Analysis of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak Based on Crowdsourced Data: A Population-level Observation Study (The Lancet)

Mobile Phone Data and Covid-19: Missing an Opportunity? (Data Pop Alliance, University of Vienna, et. al)


Analysis

Reducing Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (80,000 hours)

COVID-19: Making Data and Models Open is Part of the Fight Against it – Governments Must Act Now (Open Data Institute)

The Value and Ethics of Using Phone Data to Monitor Covid-19 (Wired)

Big Tech Faces a ‘Big Brother’ Trap on Coronavirus (Politico)

A Fiasco in the Making? As the Coronavirus Pandemic Takes Hold, We are Making Decisions Without Reliable Data (StatNews.com)

Checking our Instincts: We Need to Remain Evidence-based and Standards-driven in Times of Crisis (Tom Orrell)

How to Fight Disease Outbreaks with Data (World Economic Forum)

You Shouldn’t Have to Give Google Your Data to Access a Covid-19 Test (Slate)

South Korea is Reporting Intimate Details of COVID-19 Cases: Has it Helped? (Nature)

Covid-19, Information Problems, and Digital Surveillance (Center for Global Development)

Big Data in a Time of Crisis: Maximizing its Value - and Avoiding its Risks - In the Fight Against Covid-19 (Next Billion)

In Low-Income Countries Fundamental Data Issues Remain for Covid-19 Response (TReNDS)

COVID-19: A Look at Global Geospatial Challenges and Achievements (TReNDS)

In the Fight Against Covid-19: What Do We Know and to Whom Can We Turn for Answers? (TReNDS)


Resources From Our Partners

Data in the Time of Covid-19 (Open Data Watch)

Covid-19 Resources (Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data)

A Call for Action: Toward Building the Data Infrastructure and Ecosystem We Need to Tackle Pandemics and Other Dynamic and Societal and Environmental Threats (NYU GovLab)

Covid-19: Gender and Data Reporting (Data2X)

Covid-19 Resources for the Global Statistical Community (UN Statistical Division, GPSDD, Open Data Watch)