The CDC

The Center For Disease Control (CDC)

CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise. (cdc.gov)

KEY CDC SITES AND ACTIVITIES

Data

• This site contains data about current cases and variables related to the virus. It also details patient behaviors and death statistics in data: https://github.com/midas-network/COVID-19/tree/master/parameter_estimates/2019_novel_coronavirus

• This is a CDC printout that explains some facts known currently about the virus. It recommends some habits that the public take up, including extensive hand-washing avoidance of crowds, and self-isolation. These methods will hopefully delay the spread of the virus until proper preventive measures are put in place to deal with capacity issues, by virtue of the collective behavior adaptation of the population. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/share-facts-h.pdf

• This link analyzes how the CDC used data from WHO and other sources to determine the case-fatality risk estimates in China: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/6/20-0320_article

Models

• This article outlines the CDC's use of crowdsourcing competitions to predict flu activity: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/news/predict-flu-challenge.htm.

• This article talks about the different ways through which the CDC forecasts COVID-19 including "nowcasts", crowdsourcing, and machine learning forecasts. In addition to providing information about how to create accurate models without extensive historical data, they also touch on the challenges/limitations of the developing forecasts: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615360/cdc-cmu-forecasts-coronavirus-spread/

Videos

• This is a video that discusses the importance of modeling and how it can be used during infectious disease outbreaks: https://www.cdc.gov/grand-rounds/pp/2016/20160119-data-modeling.htm

Contributors: Katherine Gordon, Michael Lin, Dylan Page, and Ramya Puranam