Perhaps the most frustrating thing in this whole pandemic is how impossible it is to find reliable and readable information about public health measures taken in various places (lockdowns, school and business closures, curfews, mask mandates, etc.). •1/8
That we have unreliable and often contradictory data concerning the virus itself is understandable. But concerning our OWN public actions in response to it, information ought to be near-perfect! Instead, documentation is disastrous. •2/8
I live in France and I can't even keep track of the rules which apply here. They change twice a week and from place to place in a mad, incoherent mess. There isn't even a government Web site recapitulating them all (we're all supposed to read the law, I guess). •3/8
So there's simply no way to easily answer questions like “are schools currently closed in <country>?” or “which countries require masks outside?”. Wikipedia sometimes has info, but it's all over the place, and comparison between countries is almost impossible. •4/8
What is sorely lacking is a table showing, in function of three dimensions, namely date, country (or subnational unit for federal states) and type of measure (e.g., “closure of elementary schools”), whether the measure is in place or not (or partially, or with asterisks). •5/8
This database would then be viewable in various 2D slices (“how are Spain's measures evolving with time?”, “what kinds of measures were in place across the world on 2020-10-01?” or “in which countries and times were secondary schools closed?”). •6/8
This would be invaluable in understanding the reaction to the pandemic, and in discussing policy decisions, not only for citizens, but also for researchers trying to evaluate the impact of some of these measures (by searching for correlations with epidemiological dynamic). •7/8
Various organizations, public or private, could have stepped in to create and maintain this database: all have failed us. So we can't even know what the law is. This adds another layer of uncertainty and confusion at a time when we don't need it. •8/8
Thanks to @flodebarre and @pierresenellart for pointing out to me that there is at least this:
https://twitter.com/pierresenellart/status/1320454100438392839— granularity isn't good (both on the geographical and policy dimensions) but at least it's something.
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