I completed my COVID-19 Tracking Project shift on Monday, October 26, 2020. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. The week we first learned about the project and how to operate it, I was really sick, and it was a struggle to keep up with our training, let alone my other classes. Also, seeing so many numbers on a screen was (and still can be) super intimidating. Even though I had completed my training going into it, I was scared I wouldn’t be able to keep up and that I’d make lots of mistakes.
So I was grateful that at the beginning of the shift, the shift leader, Brandon, made sure to ask if anyone was new, or anyone’s first shift. Once I messaged that it was my first shift, Hannah Hoffman directly messaged me. She asked if I’d feel comfortable observing for the first part of the shift and then checking for the rest. I definitely felt more at ease that she was there specifically to help me if I needed, and that I could directly message someone for any questions.
When the time came for me to check, Hannah reminded me that I couldn’t copy and paste numbers. So I took out my notebook to write every number down. I was a bit appreciative for that, because I feel more comfortable writing notes by hand than on a computer. I started first with Nevada, then Pennsylvania, and lastly Illinois.
I believe that you don’t learn something fully until you do it. And in this shift, I learned things I didn’t realize in training. For example, in Nevada, one box, “Recovered”, asked me to use the “Other Link”. After asking Hannah, I learned that means that there is a separate link to a data website for that state. She also sent me a document with a list of terms for the boxes which I had not seen before. This definitely helped as I continued to check. Also, with Pennsylvania and Illinois, I didn’t realize I had to also check the time stamp of when the data was last updated. I was a appreciative of both the double checkers, Hannah and Nadia, for pointing that out to me.
It was also definitely interesting to see the similarities and differences in how each state I checked tracked the data. Nevada, Pennsylvania and Illinois all had intricate graphs and information by county, demographics, hospital preparedness, etc. I think because I was so focused on making sure the numbers I copied were accurate, I didn’t think that analytically. Looking back, I think that since these three states have so much data tracking in common, how much easier it would be if they all followed one format, instead of different ones.
As soon as I got the hang of checking the states, I actually found checking to be quite fun, and felt a sense of accomplishment once all states and territories were completed. I’d definitely be down to do it again!