Talking through some corona virus models with kids – including why we don’t see the virus on flu maps

With so much terrible news about the corona virus lately, I thought it would be good to talk through some of the numbers and models with them. One thing I thought would be particularly interesting for them to see is why the virus didn’t show up on some of the flu tracking maps, yet.

We started by looking at some of the flu maps from the CDC so they could see how those maps work. Those maps are here:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm#ILIActivityMap

Here’s what the boys had to say:

Next we moved to this interesting flu tracking map which uses internet connected thermometers. The interesting thing about this map is that it indicates that the flu-like systems are declining rapidly right now:

https://healthweather.us/

Here’s what they boys had to say looking at Miami, New York, and Boston on this map:

The next chart we looked at tracked movement in the US using cell phone data. This map allows us to see how the lock downs around the US are working. The map is here:

https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard

Finally, we looked at a new model making predictions about the spread of the virus in the US. Here’s that website:

https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections?fbclid=IwAR2xbEAgSzIKzQSldDEvOHh4DaK7gXxkv87AM69MN9yDI9jbKV9eRAHh8HQ

Again, we looked at Florida, New York, and Massachusetts: