When You Don't Watch Your Data

Last month, Levitt blogged about how Google Flu Trends, which measures flu queries in real-time, can serve as an early-warning system for flu outbreaks. The catch: it only works if Google’s data analysts are paying attention to the data — which they weren’t last week, when Flu Trends showed a bump in flu-related search terms right before the swine flu outbreak. One biosurveillance company claims we should have listened to Twitter and bloggers instead. [%comments]