Data map to assess the level of risk for the covid-19 virus in Howard County

         With all the information we are getting on the covid-19 it is frustrating that we seem to be fighting an invisible enemy.  We seem to be "shooting in the dark" with weapons that are not very well targeted.  I am sure that this experience will lead to new methods to address viruses in a faster way to control their spread.
     One of the ways this might be possible is the internet connect thermometers sold by Kinsa.  With now over a million of these thermometers in use the company can see where there is a spike in fevers above what you would expect from a normal flu season.  Of course other illnesses besides the covid-19 virus could be a cause of a fever but if you gain enough data over a long enough time you can identify the likely cause being a new virus like covid-19.

     The company puts out a national map on a daily basis to show the results that helps to show the risk level for all areas of the Country.  The picture above is yesterday's map for Howard County.  One caveat to a strict interpretation of this map is that the distribution of the thermometers might not be uniform throughout the County.  Here is the link to the daily map.  Interestingly, Florida seems to be a "hotspot" currently.  Spring breakers be wary??
      As I mentioned in the last paragraph the realty that there are only a million thermometers out there and their distribution may not be uniform across the County, it does lead one to think that governments should figure out a way to have these thermometers distributed to everyone universally and then a system of everyone recording temperatures daily during flu outbreaks.   Seems that we might have some money in our huge Defense budget to fight an enemy that has shut down our Country.

#hocomd