host: each monday in the last hour of the washington journal, we are taking a deep dive into different aspects of the covid-19 pandemic and resp host: the last hour of the "washington journal" we are taking a deep dive into different aspects of the covid-19 pandemic in response. this week we are taking some c time to talk about covid-19 data when it comes to the coronavirus with death and vaccination our guest is a staff writer at atlantic and cofounder of the covid tracking project. what is this project? >> itou is an effort and remains an effort to compile data from all the states. from the beginning of the pandemic we didn't have national summary statistics. even today some things are missing from the national data you find in other countries. we had a methodology to go

around to each day and pull the numbers that we could from that states - - bart on - - dashboard. host: why was this necessary? >> the truth is the data the federal authorities were prepared too present to the public was not what the public expected to see. they expected to see the stuffan you would see in singapore all the epidemiological information. but that is not what the pandemic preparedness plan had in the cards they didn't build a plan even though there were many people that went to the data pipelines.

they would continue to respectt the public health dictates of the country. host: how did you go about collecting the information and what data did you want to collect you didn't think the federal government was collecting? >> you begin with testing. we don't really collect negative test results. if you are tested it isn't sent to the cdc. we don't even count the flu death comprehensively except for people under the age of 18. we didn't have a national system for keeping track of how many people were hospitalized but we didn't really have a true comprehensive system for those national statistics or getting then national responders to knowmp which ones were in trouble for the hotspots. i methodology was simple spun out of a story at the atlantic with data scientist and another woman had run large

scale journalism project. we started using hundreds of volunteers to gather data in our federal system a lot of that public health responses at the state and county level. with a different kind of state a dashboards to standardize as well as we could to stitch that information together not just raw data but interpretation to provide people an understanding of what is going on in the thpandemic when the cdc any other health authorities were and attenuated by the trump administration. host: covid tracking.com. you can follow the project on twitter what kind of information with people get by following you on twitter?

>> we put out interpretive updates. we take a look at the data and the artifacts that look that way because of the data pipeline or the backlogs and we try to give people a very reasonable and interpretation of pandemic data and on the website you can go back in time define many weeks worth of the interpretation that we've done a very solid job to stay close to the data and only saying what we really could. host: you said the united states was missing data are they still missing data? where they can compare what's happening here with other countries?

>> the financial times is done a good job to compare the basic metrics and finding the best way to do so. when it comes to the us it depends on what is missing. relative to what we could imagine the kind of data of outbreaks were precise data allowing comparison between cities and counties. that's not in the easy to consume format. we know there are variants of concerned with mutations of the virus like sars covid to and other countries particularly in the uk created a surveillance network to track the way the virus was mutating to making it more transmissible are deadly. we really didn't do an effective job of that.

even though we are sequencing genomes in the united states if you wanted to know what percentage of the viruses circulating in a particular place is concerning you would have a pretty hard time to figure that out there is a lot of people right now and groupsin we have talked with who want to build a better dashboard and a better understanding of the interaction of these variants, behavior, and vaccination levels and what the outbreak looks like in a particular place. host: i want to show the viewers from the hearing in may of 2020. the congressman talking about your covid tracking project here is m what he had to say. >> one of my great

frustrations is the failure of the cdc to do just true testing numbers i like to submit for the record i lead with this request to the cdc the metric they still have not met taking like a covid tracking project with the data we would expect from the cdc. and then working with the covid tracking project with the racial data tractor making the comprehensive resource and ethnicity data. can you tell us why that matters quick. >> it matters because it did not exist. the federal government was not collecting the data are making it available at a national level.

so the federal government was not collecting the testing data so it created itself. so we feel the need so that people in every state or community can understand which are the most vulnerable to create policies to reduce disparities. host: when did thehe government start using your data? >> [laughter] i would say close to the veryav beginning for what we have discovered in later months. we know trump and biden administration cited our numbers for various things. we know that states use the data to compare themselves to other states nearby. this is not ideal. the very best place for data collection for a variety of

reasons we don't want to create a pseudo- cdc we wanted the cdc and hhs more broadly that lawmakers expected to allow us to understand which are the most vulnerable. it's important to understand. and then to understand another dimension of the outbreak. people in the latino community want to know that. at other times and other places white communities have been hit hardest. to understand those health disparities is an important part of understanding the actual movement of the pandemic. listening to the colors earlier we all susceptible in

the same way? the truth is in a narrow biological sense, yes. however if you say at what age have 90 percent of the deaths occurred quick. >> it's different for the different racial groups because of the social vulnerabilities. there is overcrowding in the latino communities and because of that there has been intrafamily spread. so latino communities have been really hit hard. all this data and the reason for all these projects to get involved isal because it is a fundamental mismatch between what the national government planned to provide what people actually wanted. that's a lesson for future pandemics. in this type of situation we

asked people to take severe countermeasures at this .600000 people with an accurate count, people expect data. the truth is that was not the expectation at cdc or at epidemiologist or other associated bodies who arest connected to the federal public health apparatus. host: angela and maryland. >>caller: i have a question about most recent reinfection rates after you get vaccinated but before i get to that from the one gentle man from north carolina, yes you will get the covid like with pfizer he's

f not understanding it's. 90 percent you won't develop the harsh symptoms to put you in the hospital. yes you will get the covid but because of the vaccine you have a 90 percent chance of not developing symptoms. to the one gentle man it's not the government it's not totalitarianism but businesses private industry giving you these covid passports. so my question was what is the most recent data of the reinfection rates after youed get vaccinated for the timeframe? before you answer that and the one gentle man about the cancel culture. host: i will stop there. about reinfection rates. >> there is a lot we don't know about reinfection rates. that is the big question of how the next few months of the pandemic will play out. in a ballpark we have a certain amount of confirmed cases but if we don't confirm every big round number those

that have been infected. so can those people get reinfected by a different variant or the original virus or viruses? reinfection can happen but with the original virus the t rates were small. it would happen what happened to somebody but it really wouldn't be a population level problem. one of the big questions that was first identified it appears reinfection rates can be higher although there is questions about that. one of the reasons to stay safe and keep ourselves in a theious posture even vaccinations are going well , we need a couple more months to get people vaccinated to

tamp down the spread of the virus within the united states to give us a chance if they do approve that kind of problem to deal with it. reinfection the most likely thing, is there won't be huge amounts of reinfection but the variance of concern is why they are of concern. that's my answer. host: stephanie is next in kansas. >>caller: good morning. i would just like to say first of all as we celebrate the passover. to give glory to god first. second, the information that is let out to anyone that is

listening please look up us patent (101)307-0182. also a - - 61 k 39. >> i don't know if you're trying to say that it was a patented virus. this doesn't make any sense to me i don't think that most of the people or really anybody and the public health infrastructure is talking about this. that is not the chorus that you hear. it's a deadly virus that likely came from bats.he that is it. that's a story. i hate to cut you off color. we appreciate it and have the on - - happy passover as well but we have to deal with the real issue that there is a deadly virus that has played out in unexpected ways and that's really what this is

about. host: you saw the quotation that ittor redfield came accidentally from the fir with on - - virology institute f in china. >> is it complete the out of the question? >> no. but we know this kind of virus is present in bats in the sort of thing has happened in human history. i don't think it has any crazy explanation. this is something that people literally expected this kind of thing to happen for decades. we have the original sars. so people are searching for these explanations. and it does make sense to me the reason it makes sense is

the overall situation we find ourselves is so awful for most people people would like there to be somebody to blame. we live on this earth with tother organisms and viruses and this is happened throughout human history. it doesn't require a bad actor or a conspiracy. this is how the world works in akand of itself is terrifying. it makes sense people might want to try to find a conspiratorial's solution. host: winchester tennessee. >>caller: good morning. i would like to make a comment about the schools in tennessee. they have opened all the schools without any precautions and the kids are not using spacing they do not

have to wear a mask or receive any injections and that causes me great concern. i have not heard of any studies that has been done about what we purchased in our stores especially fresh foods. could we be picking up viruses from the fruit please? >> i will take the schools question. i think g the schools cases really complicated. you have teachers you want to protect older teachers and schools are vulnerable at the same time you have kids youe are having trouble at home with those situations at home they do not have access to the

tools of learning that they need here in california wech have the opposite situation schools are closed here in the bay area. and it's very difficult for kids and parents. one answer to this vaccination, vaccination, vaccin for the kids so studies are ongoing also basic hygiene and precautions. the main body of scientific research kids, particularly younger ones me be less likely to get infected to spread the virus. but the jury is out on older kids.

and it is a tough trade-off. and it's one that has been going on for a long time. this wasn't something that is a years worth of close schools and fear and risk in other places. and my hope we've been vaccinating 1 percent of the united states in one day. give that a couple months then you have a large chunk of the country vaccinated and we can all breathe easier. host: bob from michigan. >>caller: i would ask all on - - asked the simplest of questions. have you tracked the deaths mart 2019 through 2020 versus the total deaths of the united states march 1st 2020

through today? what is the discrepancy in total amount of deaths in the united states? >> itle is a pretty big number with that statistical measure is is the historical measure. how many people died? and we did you expect? it looks at the difference between that expectation and what actually happened. and then starting in march they are extremely high with that baseline level and it's ave little tricky because they fill in over time you don't have a real-time measure. but you talk about 600 or 700,000.e it is a lot of excess deaths. and people that tried to look

at the disparity and cook the books the people know they are doing with the excess deaths numbers that there was a massive number that track very closely with the surge of the virus. viewers can learn more covid tracking.com or follow them on twitter the cofounder of the project thank you for the conversation. >> thank you