Robertson County Gets D- On Social Distancing (Based On Cell Data)
ROBERTSON COUNTY TENNESSEE: (Smokey Barn News) – Robertson County’s Social Distancing report card isn’t looking so good, according to the location data and analytics firm Unacast.
Unacast, founded in 2014, is a mobility data company that harnesses anonymous device location data to, in this case, understand human behavior.
Smokey Barn News has no way to validate Unacast’s data about Robertson County but the firm’s data is being touted by several news agencies, including ABC News.
On Friday Unacast launched a Social Distancing Scoreboard. Just enter your county and you can get your grade.
Basically the firm is tracking users’ cell phones to acquire the data, not unlike Google Maps uses cell phone tracking to show blockages on the roadways. Here’s a video on how Google tracks vehicles for traffic data. Unacast is doing the same thing. The data they collect from Cell phones shows how people move and how much they practice social distancing.
The data does exist but there is no way of knowing if Unacast’s coalescence is accurate but if the data is accurate Robertson County received a poor grade.
“Unacast created this pro bono offering, powered by its Real World Graph® data engine, to help public health experts, policymakers, academics, community leaders and businesses in retail and real estate gain accurate insights into current public behavior and unearth trends for future scenarios related to the spread of COVID-19.”
The Scorecard assigns a letter grade of A through F to all states and counties in relation to social distancing behavior. Using the change in distance traveled prior to COVID-19 in comparison to present day, areas that observe at least a 40% decrease in average distance traveled are assigned a grade of A, while those that exhibit less than 10% decrease or increase are assigned an F. Letter grades are then compared to the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in those areas to help users draw conclusions between social distancing behavior and virus spread over time.
In comparison, Davidson County (Nashville) received a B. Not one county in Tennessee received an A. Tennessee’s overall grade was a D-. The United States in total received a grade of C.
*Note: there is a 4 day lag in the data (PHOTO BELOW: Grades by states)
