Visualizing COVID-19 Data

Data Con LA 2020
Description
As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the United States and Los Angeles in March 2020, Mayor Eric Garcetti's office quickly sprang into action, declaring a local emergency on March 4, implementing a Safer at Home order on March 22, holding daily press briefings, and creating a variety of assistance programs for Los Angeles residents, including childcare support and direct financial assistance through the Angeleno Card.

In order to ensure the Mayor was working with all the most updated and relevant data, the Mayor's Innovation Team, in conjunction with the City's Chief Innovation Officer, Amanda Daflos, compiled key data from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health, in addition to national data, and internal City of Los Angeles data on topics such as N95 mask stock and calls to the Mayor's COVID-19 hotline. The Mayor used these briefings to better inform the public and tailor the City's response to the emerging trends. Starting in April, the data briefings were released for download on the Mayor's COVID-19 website.

The presentation will focus on the following items:

*Why is COVID-19 data analysis challenging, especially for the City of Los Angeles given its lack of a Public Health Department?

*How the data briefings have been used by Mayor Garcetti to inform policy and convey key information to the public

*How content is determined and has evolved over the past six plus months

*The challenges collecting and aggregating data, particularly non-automated data, from so many different stakeholders on a daily basis

*What the future holds for COVID-19 data in the City of Los Angeles and beyond

Speaker
Alex Pudlin, City of Los Angeles, Director of the Innovation Team