Smartphone data reveal which Americans are social distancing (and not)

[PA Democrat]

D.C. gets an 'A' while Wyoming earns an 'F' for following coronavirus stay-at-home advice, based on the locations of tens of millions of phones

By
Geoffrey A. Fowler
Technology columnist
March 24, 2020 at 3:17 p.m. EDT

If you have a smartphone, you’re probably contributing to a massive coronavirus surveillance system.

And it’s revealing where Americans have — and haven’t — been practicing social distancing.

On Tuesday, a company called Unacast that collects and analyzes phone GPS location data launched a “Social Distancing Scoreboard” that grades, county by county, which residents are changing behavior at the urging of health officials. It uses the reduction in the total distance we travel as a rough index for whether we’re staying put at home.

Comparing the nation’s mass movements from March 20 to an average Friday, Washington, D.C., gets an A, while Wyoming as a whole earns an F.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/24/social-distancing-maps-cellphone-location/


You can go to Unacast's interactive scoreboard maps which score social distancing on a state and even county level.

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

[2naSalit]

1. I find the methodololgy to be lacking...

in western rural states, the scores are skewed as many people out here have to travel to tend to livestock, go to a store or any number of vital activities which can still be done in isolation. I think basing this info solely on cell phones and whether they went anywhere. And I don't see where differentiation was considered in how the data was assessed. They gave the same weight to heavily populated states/counties as the rural counterparts. It's not that great an assessment in my view.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. It's not on "travel" but whether there is "changing behaviour". Read the OP

It's not on an absolute but on a delta.

[2naSalit]

4. I went to the link

and read the methodology segment, along with the rest of it. There won't be change in behavior for a number of reasons.

If you are a rancher and you have to go out and tend to your livestock every day, you won't be changing your behavior, animals need attention whether it's Monday or Saturday. Sometimes the chore includes traveling several miles for each task, each day.

If you drive a truck, have to drive twenty miles to get to your job at the hospital or police dispatch or the grocery store... your behavior will not change. Same with people who don't travel to work or are retired. The law enforcement agencies have large areas to cover and they won't be changing their behavior as far as travel with phones is concerned.


I think population density could have been considered as well but wasn't really addressed. Maybe they will do that in subsequent studies, seems they are seeking suggestions.

Frankly, one of the things I would like to have gleaned from the study is the rearranging of population segments. I know that the usually unoccupied this time of year trophy homes in my state have suddenly become occupied.

Ten years ago the decennial census revealed that 71% of all housing units in my and surrounding counties were vacation homes. And that was ten years ago, housing for locals has become a bad scene as folks convert their homes into VRBOs, rents increase as do prices in the housing market. It's been a real problem since about 2014.

So the temporary migration of the wealthy has been going on, they don't contribute much in the way of taxes but they will expect to have the best of care and first class placement in line when they get sick, here. They already raided the grocery stores with he TP obsession. The two stores I go to have yet to recover three weeks on. Cities get restocked before we do out here in the hinterlands.

So I think the element of behavior wasn't the best choice for the study using the constant they chose. Perhaps they'll improve in later studies.

[jimfields33]

2. Wyoming no death. Washington DC has had deaths

I suppose Wyoming is ok with an F.