Here’s how it works. Note how ridiculously well its curves overlap the CDC (Center for Disease Control) curves.

Quoth Dr. Lyn Finelli, chief of influenza surveillance at the CDC:

“The data are really, really timely. They were able to tell us on a day-to-day basis the relative direction of flu activity for a given area. They were about a week ahead of us. They could be used … as early warning signal for flu activity.”

I just think it’s darn cool that appropriate combing of Google search terms can be a week ahead of the CDC in finding influenza hotspots.

kbmartin