Johns Hopkins Now Compiling U.S. COVID Testing Data

Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center (CRC) now houses United States COVID-19 testing data — taking the reins from the COVID Tracking Project, which has compiled the data from publicly reported sources for the past year.

The COVID Tracking Project is a volunteer effort launched out of The Atlantic in the early days of the pandemic, dedicated to collecting and publishing vital public health data for the U.S. — because at the time federal agencies weren't up to the job, according to the project's founders. "We began the work out of necessity and planned to do it for a couple of weeks at most, always in the expectation that the federal public health establishment would make our work obsolete," they explained in a recent blog post. "Every few months through the course of the project, we asked ourselves whether it was possible to wind down. Instead, we saw the federal government continue to publish patchy and often ill-defined data while our world-famous public health agencies remained sidelined and underfunded, their leadership seemingly inert."

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have improved their data efforts to the point that the COVID Tracking Project is coming to an end. "Compiling, cleaning, standardizing, and making sense of COVID-19 data from 56 individual states and territories … is properly the work of federal public health agencies," the project founders stated. "Although substantial gaps and complexities remain, we have seen persuasive evidence that the CDC and HHS are now both able and willing to take on the country's massive deficits in public health data infrastructure, and to offer the best available data and science communication in the interim."

Johns Hopkins' CRC will now draw on data from local, state and federal sources rather than from the COVID Tracking Project, adding state testing data collection to its existing efforts. The Center's mission remains to "aggregate and analyze the best data available on COVID-19 — including cases, deaths, tests, contact tracing, and vaccinations — to help the public, policymakers and healthcare professionals worldwide respond to the pandemic."

For more information, visit the Coronavirus Resource Center site.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Stylized illustration showing cybersecurity elements like shields, padlocks, and secure cloud icons on a neutral, minimalist digital background

    Microsoft Announces Security Advancements

    Microsoft has announced major security advancements across its product portfolio and practices. The work is part of its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a multiyear cybersecurity transformation the company calls the largest engineering project in company history.

  • illustration with geometric shapes, digital circuitry, and subtle icons of an open book, graduation cap, and lightbulb

    University of Michigan Launches Agentic AI Virtual Teaching Assistant

    At the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, a new Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program is utilizing agentic AI to provide students with 24/7 access to support and self-directed learning.

  • young man in a denim jacket scans his phone at a card reader outside a modern glass building

    Colleges Roll Out Mobile Credential Technology

    Allegion US has announced a partnership with Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Denison College, in conjunction with Transact + CBORD, to install mobile credential technologies campuswide. Implementing Mobile Student ID into Apple Wallet and Google Wallet will allow students access to campus facilities, amenities, and residence halls using just their phones.

  • university building surrounded by icons for AI, checklists, and data governance

    Improving AI Governance for Stronger University Compliance and Innovation

    AI can generate valuable insights for higher education institutions and it can be used to enhance the teaching process itself. The caveat is that this can only be achieved when universities adopt a strategic and proactive set of data and process management policies for their use of AI.