Summary:
I have an article in the July/August 2020 issue of CODE Magazine, on creating a public dashboard to show COVID-19 data (using Microsoft Power BI and SQL Server data). Some personal comments at the end on why I'm writing about this.
First, here's a link to the CODE Magazine article (this is part 1 of what will likely be a 3-part series):
https://bit.ly/2C0PxB6
Second, here is a public dashboard page that I'll be updating weekly on Sunday nights.
https://bit.ly/2A6lk3a
I'm using county-level data from the NYT:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nytimes/covid-19-data/master/us-counties.csv
Third, on Tuesday night, July 21st, I'll be doing a remote user group presentation for the Philadelphia BI User Group.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/july-2020-philly-bi-user-group-virtual-meeting-tickets-113049989562?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Click here to download the slide deck for the 7/21 Meeting.
You can email me either at [email protected], or [email protected]
KG
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Some Personal notes on this:
Personal comments: This is an extremely sad and tragic topic. I realize it seems morbid to write about using database technology to report on numbers, because these numbers represent lives with families and friends. To date we have over 129,000 people in the United States that have died. An analyst can break out these numbers in many ways, but here are 3 breakouts that are as sobering as they are compelling:
- Almost 25% of the deaths have occurred in the New York City and neighboring northern New Jersey areas.
- At least 43% of the deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities. Many view this number as conservative, because not all states provide complete reporting, either due to privacy restrictions or just general data collection challenges.
- Roughly 80% of U.S. deaths have been age 65 and up, and about 60% of U.S. deaths have been ages 75 and up.
Worldwide, COVID-19 has taken the lives of over 475,000 people. We are seeing history, and unfortunately a very devastating history. So I can understand why someone would wonder about why I'd write about this topic.
There are several reasons, one of which is this: people read books about the 1918 flu pandemic, books that contain charts and statistics that someone put together. Obviously, we live in the "age of information" but the concept still holds true. But I've tried to approach this topic with great sensitivity.
Also, anyone who has created video content knows it can take hours to produce 15 minutes of something worthwhile. As I already have a regular career /day job and family and have put in quite a bit of personal time on this project, I can't really devote hours to make perfect videos. I'm doing these videos pretty much extemporaneously, with limited practice and a short script, and I'm not starting over if I have a few slip-ups halfway through. :)
Also, as I work with data for a living as a software developer/analyst, most developers like to have some kind of public portfolio of their work. For years I've faced the challenge of coming up with good data examples for conferences, SQL Saturday and User Group events, etc. Actual work examples from different industries have all the great context and nuance, but then you have to mask all the data. Given that all of this information is public, it provides a good source for a public example.
Finally, for anyone who is interested in prior .NET/C#/SQL Server articles of mine, here's a link to all of them, dating back to 2004.
https://codemag.com/People/Bio/Kevin.Goff
I'm disabling comments on my blog. However, I'm definitely interested in communicating with people on this topic.
You can email me either at [email protected], or [email protected]
More to come...folks, take care of yourselves, stay safe, and play it smart! Even if the numbers overwhelmingly point out the risk to older individuals, I implore everyone to do the right things. This virus doesn't just cause serious respiratory illness, it also can cause horrible vascular damage, especially in those with pre-existing conditions. Please - play it smart!!!