Outbreaks Near Me is an American health data analytics platform based in Boston, Massachusetts. It receives self-reported COVID-19 and influenza symptom data and displays it publicly on a map, as well as shares it with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It is the successor to Flu Near You and COVID Near You.[1]
History
John Brownstein launched HealthMap in 2006.[2]
In 2011, the film Contagion was released, centered around a fictitious pandemic. This led Brownstein and his team to "think more about the need to aggregate public health information on a scale that wouldn’t be possible by government-run testing."[2:1]
Flu Near You was created in 2012 by Ending Pandemics, Boston Children's Hospital, the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Skoll Global Threats Fund,[1:1] and "launched as part of" Contagion's post-release campaign.[2:2]
COVID-19
In March 2020, COVID Near You was launched as a sister site of Flu Near You in order to "track the then emerging COVID-19 pandemic."[1:2]
In December 2020, COVID Near You was renamed to Outbreaks Near Me and integrated the influenza tracking functions of Flu Near You.[1:3]
Organization
Outbreaks Near Me is run by teams at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, along with the University of Toronto and Toronto Public Health in Canada.[3][1:4]
Additional collaborators include the American Public Health Association (APHA), COVID Symptom Study, Delphi Group and SurveyMonkey.[4]
The platform was developed in partnership with FluLab and Ending Pandemics.[4:1]
External links
Who We Are. Outbreaks Near Me. Retrieved August 6, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230806165007/https://outbreaksnearme.org/ca/en-CA/who-we-are ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Jones, A. M. (2020, April 12). Has someone in your area been tested for COVID-19? A new website lets you know. CTV News. http://archive.today/2023.08.06-164036/https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/has-someone-in-your-area-been-tested-for-covid-19-a-new-website-lets-you-know-1.4892890 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Home - Canada. Outbreaks Near Me. Retrieved August 6, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230806164916/https://outbreaksnearme.org/ca/en-CA ↩︎
Collaborators. Outbreaks Near Me. Retrieved August 6, 2023, from http://archive.today/2023.08.06-165022/https://outbreaksnearme.org/ca/en-CA/collaborators ↩︎ ↩︎
