Google’s Swine Flu Map Not Entirely Accurate
I guess the Swine Flu is no longer a mystery to all of you. Everybody knows that the H1N1 virus affects Mexico and some part of the United States. However, the Swine Flu is spreading all over the world and according to the latest reports, it has spread all the way to the Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific areas. Yesterday, we reported that you can track the H1N1-generated Swine Flu using Google Maps, and that Google is better at compelling a Swine Flu map than the CDC.
The Google H1N1 Swine Flu map has helped the CDC to track the virus, and it seems like the CDC is two weeks behind Google’s map. However, this is not exactly true as the Swine flu map generated by Google is not accurate because it’s user-generated. Also, the Swine Flu has caused hysteria among people and they don’t know where to go and what to do so they decided to ask Google’s help. There is a Google-mania around the world, and everybody thinks that Google is always doing the right thing, and it never makes mistakes. Google Maps is a truly great invention, and Internet users love to search something and why wouldn’t they look for the Swine Flu? But you should ask yourself if this Swine Flu map by Google really helps you.
Well, I don’t want to be wrong but I think that we should let the experts do their job as the Google H1N1 Swine Flu map is generated by people like you and me. However, we have another problem: we don’t really have any experts. And those that we have, are kinda lying to us. They say that the Swine Flu is under control when it is not, and they don’t give us any advices. This is where Google’s Swine Flu map appears to help us keep an eye on the pandemic, but like I said you can’t rely entirely on it.
The problem is that you could be affected by the H1N1 virus and I could be dead by the time I finish this article, while you could be affected by the time you finish reading it. Hopefully, this won’t be the case, but I do realize that we need a better Swine Flu map so that we can keep an eye on the pandemic. Also, please don’t panic, just call your doctor and listen to his instructions.
- THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY:
- Dragos Pirvu
Someone switches a Starcraft2 Beta key...
Im all like..
what the fuck!?
It is this sort of rhetoric that is causing the panic in the first place.
Google maps is obviously not the most reliable source for information, but the claim that the experts are lying to us?
That’s ridiculous man. Flu won’t kill you “before you’re done writing an article” nor is it truly a pandemic. Just be smart, wash your hands, and don’t say things that will stir the pot unnecessarily.
You seem confused. You show the chart from Google Flu Trends. However, you fail to recognize that this is something which is separate from tracking the swine flu. Not everyone who has the flu has the swine flu. Google Flu Trends is a tracking mechanism for all strains of flu combined, not just one specific strain. The swine flu, in comparison to all flus, is just a minor blip on the map at this point. It is hardly to be noticed against a backdrop of all flus. So, using Google Flu Trends this early in the game regarding a single strain of flu is just an exercise in futility.
Secondly, the “map” that everyone is talking about, saying that it is “Google’s”… it’s really just a user-generated map using Google’s services. So, Google didn’t make the map any more than Microsoft typed this message for me, even though I am using Microsoft Windows XP to do so.
In fact, if the CDC themselves so chose to build a map of cases, they could do so using Google Maps. Then, would it be Google doing it? Would it be the CDC? Would it be a “collaboration”? Or would it just be the CDC using Google Maps to make their information public?
Thanks for the update. I appreciate your due-diligence on the matter. However, I do think the google map will give a good idea of trends which can provide valuable information (even if all the dots are not 100% accurate).
I stocked up on tamiflu last week, it works against this swine crap, and also bird flu, got some for my whole family on friday and it arrived monday. you can get it without prescriptions for now and doubt our hospitals have enough for us all. Got mine at tamiflu.tk, only place i could find without a prescription.
The U.S. is lying about the so called swin flue, for political reasons (as always, they need someone to blame) in order to save face. “50 people have contacted the swin flu and not one has dead in the U.S.?” In Mexico, 100 people have died? The U.S. has more or less about 35,000 cases of the flu deaths per year, way more than Mexico. Those people in Mexico have dead for a smart flu Bomb that kills only Mexicans and spares Americans? The people who are dying from the flu in the U.S., the Medical establishment for Embarrassment and blame, In order to save face and promote the lies will simply say “it was some other flu. Is this some type of intelligent test? “MAN ARE AMERECANS STUPID” do you think you’re kidding the world? You’re not. Mexico knows exactly what you doing; they have a long History of Americas stupidity and crap. I don’t care if it’s the lizard flu the American who died or dead
I do not agree with the comment that the google map is inaccurate because it is done by everyday people and not professionals. While the reliability may be questionable, it still can be accurate.
“Also, please don’t panic, just call your doctor and listen to his instructions.”
Good advice – don’t panic. At this point only one person has died outside Mexico (a young baby) and the progress of the disease in Mexico is not yet understood. It’s also not yet understood why most people outside Mexico have less severe symptoms.
Go here for some balanced facts rather than the media frenzy:
http://www.who.int/en/
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/QA.aspx
“The problem is that you could be affected by the H1N1 virus and I could be dead by the time I finish this article, while you could be affected by the time you finish reading it.”
Bad advice! This is exactly the kind of exaggerated and ill-informed speculation that makes people panic in the first place. If ‘could’ in your statement means a one in ten trillion chance then your statement _might_ be factually supportable. However most readers won’t interpret it that way. Congratulations on your contribution to increasing the unfounded panic!
The H1N1 Swine Flu map is not maintained by google. It is user generated content. The map also has nothing to do with google’s Flue Trends chart which does not generate location data, only number of searches about flu.
Right, Well i’ve heard that there are 2 cases in spain, so either there not telling us something or googles messed up again.
Let me tell you something, first excusime for my english, I live in Mexico city and we are living well, there are a lot of news to prevent the inffections but, many people suspect that is a political trade with goberment of america, we don´t know some bady inffected and in the tv can watch people inffected but this people are poor, the goberment in mexico ask us to keep in home but many political strategics are aproved like drogs, schools, fedral police armed, and new lows, there are a confuse present and future and is not clare is there are a real h1n1 in mexico, many people don´´t believe this information but are scare.
The m
The map is a guide, not the end all and be all. For the most part it is accurate. For more accuracy, you have to drill down on the icons to see if HIN1 is really in that location or if there was just a news story that came from that location about another place, or on a RARE occasion, an icon was placed in a spot where there are neither cases nor related news stories. In the third case, I believe it is a simple error of the program.
In the list of news articles below the map, I have found them to be all reliable sources.