Book Recommendation — Everybody Lies

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are

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Google Searches Can Help Us Find Emerging Covid-19 Outbreaks

Consider Ecuador. The official data says that while Ecuador has among the highest rates of Covid-19 cases per capita in South America, it has a lower case rate than the United States, Canada, Australia, Iran and most of Europe.

At the same time, Ecuadorians are now making more searches related to loss of smell than any other country in the world, once you adjust for total Google searches. Searches for “no puedo oler” (“I can’t smell”) are some 10 times higher per Google search in Ecuador than they are in Spain, even though Ecuador officially reports more than ten times fewer Covid-19 cases per capita than Spain does. Ecuadorians are also right near the top in searches for fever, chills and diarrhea.

The search data, in other words, suggests that Ecuador may be even more of a Covid-19 epicenter than the official data says. That could help explain recent videos that have been shared on social media of bodies piled up on the street in Guayaquil, a port city in Ecuador.