Comparison of COVID-19 case and death counts in the United States reported by four online trackers: January 22-May 31, 2020

Smith, Jinkinson Payne

The first purpose of this study is to describe a project focused on comparing the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States reported by four different online trackers, namely, those maintained by USAFacts, the New York Times, Johns Hopkins University, and the COVID Tracking Project. The second purpose of this study is to present results from the first five months of 2020 (January 22-May 31, 2020). This project is ongoing, so it will be updated regularly as new data from each of these trackers become available. Based on the time period included, the NYT has reported more cases than any of the other three trackers since late March/early April, and COVID Tracking Project has reported fewer deaths than any of the other three trackers since mid-March. It is hoped that the discrepancies identified by this project will provide avenues for research on their causes.