The map, seen here, shows an estimated percentage of people with COVID-19 symptoms, not confirmed cases.

By Scott Bolthouse | The Huron Hub
ScottBolthouse@HuronHub.com
Published April 20, 2020

Facebook and Carnegie Mellon University released their first county-by-county maps of the U.S. on Monday showing self-reported COVID-19 symptoms based on data it has collected.

Here is a link to the map.

The map shows an estimated percentage of people with COVID-19 symptoms, not confirmed cases.

On April 20, the map showed that Wayne County has 1.1% of people reporting symptoms.

Facebook says it is using aggregated public data from a survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon University Delphi Research Center.

The social media giant said it doesn’t receive, collect or store individual survey responses, and that the map is not intended for diagnostic or treatment purposes, or for guidance on any type of travel.

Over one million users have already participated, according to Facebook.

To participate in the survey, visit this link.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, said surveys like this can be an important tool in fighting COVID-19 and announced that we’re working with faculty from the University of Maryland to expand the program globally.

“Getting accurate county-by-county data from across the United States is challenging, and obtaining such focused data from across the whole world is even harder. But with a community of billions of people globally, Facebook can uniquely help researchers and health authorities get the information they need to respond to the outbreak and start planning for the recovery,” he said in a Washington Post column on Monday morning.

Zuckerberg said the goal is to give state officials a sense of where they may need to direct resources, such as personal protective equipment, or PPE.

“Overall, since experiencing symptoms is a precursor to going to the hospital or becoming more seriously ill, these maps could be an important tool for governments and public health officials to make decisions on how to allocate scarce resources like ventilators and PPE, and eventually when it’s safe to start re-opening society,” Zuckerberg said.

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