Thread by @MaxCRoser

Without testing there is no data – and without data we can not know what is happening in the world right now.

We need to know how much different countries actually test.
This data is what we focused our efforts on.

Here is the our new update: OurWorldInData.org/covid-testing

Without testing there are no confirmed cases.

Al the data on the pandemic out there needs to be interpreted based on how much testing for the virus is actually done.

But there is no international organization that is currently tracking testing data.

And the country specific sources – health ministries, statistical agencies, CDCs – are not making it easily available.

At the link above you find detailed descriptions of where we find this data.
And we document in which ways the metadata that countries publish is incomplete.

This was a big team effort for us.

Big thanks to @JoeHasell, @redouad, @diana_beltekian, @_HannahRitchie, & @EOrtizOspina !

In the past week they prepared how to possibly build this dataset.
And in a 2-day sprint went country by country to bring it all into one place.

This is the first version of this new dataset.

We will keep it up to date and in the coming days we will add more and more countries to it.

cc:
@EricTopol @niranjanbose @mlipsitch @devisridhar @HelenBranswell @paulg @paulmromer @robertwiblin
@StefanFSchubert @tobyordoxford @kikollan @jburnmurdoch @CT_Bergstrom @ATabarrok @tylercowen @Noahpinion

In case you are interested in our latest data on COVID-19 testing.