Can Twitter be used to detect pandemics before they take off?

To find out, researchers at UCI and UCLA are sifting through millions of tweets (and other data) from the months leading up to COVID-19’s big splash, looking for anomalies and patterns that would have provided an early warning of the virus.

Chen Li, a professor of computer science who’s leading the effort at UCI, likens the project to “weather forecasting, where advances in big data technologies and information analysis have resulted in better forecasts that are further out.” A pandemic early detection system could enable “faster responses in public health, medicine and government,” he says.

Read the full story on UCI News.