Led by Caroline Buckee (Center for Communicable Disease, Harvard T.H. Chan), Satchit Balsari (HMS and HSPH), and Andrew Schroeder (Direct Relief), the COVID-19 Mobility Data Network aims to “provide daily updates to decision-makers at the state and local levels on how well social distancing interventions are working.” The team is made up of a network of infectious disease epidemiologists located at universities around the world, working in partnership with tech companies — including Facebook, Camber Analytics, and Cuebiq — to use aggregated mobility data in support of the COVID-19 response.
Using anonymous, aggregated datasets collected from online services, the Network generates an analysis of social distancing measures at an administratively actionable spatial resolution. The aggregated data sets from the team’s tech partners will be collected in accordance with data use agreements and strict privacy-preserving policies. Underlying data sets will not be shared with governments, third parties, or the public at large.
Researchers are paired with designated public health officials at the city, state, or country-levels, whom they then provide daily situation reports to, and help with interpretation and further analysis. With this wealth of data, health officials are provided with real-time insights into effectiveness of public messaging, social distancing, and strategies for rollback.
The network will include an India Working Group, with two aims:
- Social distancing and human mobility mapping: Publish daily situation reports for all states and union territories in India and all districts of interest, to help quantify the effectiveness of social distancing messaging.
- Provide subject matter expertise: Analyze the impact of social distancing on caseload and vulnerable communities to help plan phased rollouts.
The India Working Group includes:
- Varun Aggarwal, Co-Founder, Aspiring Minds
- Santanu Bhattacharya, Chief Data Scientist, Airtel
- Ankur Goel, B.Tech, IIT Delhi; Research Fellow, Harvard Biodesign Lab
- Nishant Kishore, PhD in Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School; Director, Mittal Institute
- Rahul Matthan, TriLegal
- Milind Tambe, John A. Paulson School Of Engineering And Applied Sciences, Harvard University
- Chintan Vaishnav, MIT Sloan School
To learn more about the network and keep up with its latest updates, visit the COVID-19 Mobility Data Network website here.