How we did it
USA TODAY reporters used a variety of data sources for the “American Virus” story. The following lists each source in the order that each graphic appears:
● People traveled from Wuhan: VariFlight provided data for flight CZ2659 from Wuhan to San Francisco with flight dates and occupancy rate. USA TODAY extrapolated the population of each flight based on the capacity of the Boeing B777-300ER, the plane used by China Southern Airlines.
● International and domestic flights: Flightradar24 provided daily flight data from Jan. 1 to April 30. USA TODAY removed flights with unknown or unconfirmed departures or arrivals from the final count. Then, reporters counted the flight routes and analyzed them using the provided 3-letter IATA airport code.
● NFC game: Cuebiq provided data that tracks movement of cell phone devices. Devices used in this analysis were present at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara County from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26. Cuebiq provided the top 100 counties of origin. USA TODAY extrapolated population numbers using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
● Bay Area deaths: USA TODAY obtained death records for these cases under the California Public Records Act from the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner.
● Death counts in headers: USA TODAY used data from Johns Hopkins University that includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia and territories.
● Florida deaths related to travel: USA TODAY obtained medical examiner data under state public records law. The deaths span from March 5 to April 14.
● New York State population change: This is based on Cuebiq’s “home-switcher” data that uses cell phone devices to determine who changed homes, in what location, and when. Cuebiq provided the data broken down by the balance of population in the state. USA TODAY extrapolated population numbers using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
● New York State relocation destinations: This also uses Cuebiq’s “home-switcher” data. Cuebiq provided the data by week for all states. USA TODAY cut the data to observe only New York State from Jan. 1 through March 31 and extrapolated population numbers using U.S. Census Bureau data.
● New York City relocation destinations: This also uses Cuebiq’s “home-switcher” data. Cuebiq provided the data broken down by week for Census-designated metropolitan areas. USA TODAY cut the data to observe only the New York City area from Jan. 1 through March 31 and extrapolated population numbers using U.S. Census Bureau data.