Finding the Signs Early

About 2 years ago, a dangerous virus called COVID-19, forced many countries, including the United States, to take extreme measures, like lockdowns and face masks, to stop it from spreading. These steps saved lives, but also had big costs, both economically and socially. So, everyone started looking for ways to predict when and where the virus might cause problems. This time, Geosocial Media posts were studied heavily. Why? Because they come with a place stamp, making them useful for tracking. Many places, including and especially US counties, started to use these posts as a way to see spikes coming in real-time. Some people found a problem here too. These posts were not always reliable. They blended place references so big and span of time so limited, that they couldn't be trusted always. Most key factor here was political geography. It seemed like local politics had an impact on how well this tool could predict outbreaks. This is one of the important take away points.

Plenty has been written about the potential of social media to track the spread of disease. But the fact that social media platforms are used at different rates across different communities makes it tricky to know whether any sharp increase or decrease in a specific issue will be noticed or not by others. Politics have also been shown to divide the use of social media, not just by believing in the issue but by whether or not it's seen as a serious concern. Especially in counties or across the country, predictions can sometimes shift due to the local teams, or county level. Tracking social media use across these diverse regions, especially when they intersect with local beliefs. A meaningful challenge. Simply put, tracking disease is hard work. But geosocial media posts are a cool tool. But they're not perfect, and more work is needed to fine-tune them, especially when knowing how local politics play a big role.

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