Can auxiliary indicators improve COVID-19 forecasting and hotspot prediction?

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Abstract

Validated forecasting methodology should be a vital element in the public health response to any fast-moving epidemic or pandemic. A widely used model for predicting the future spread of a temporal process is an autoregressive (AR) model. While basic, such an AR model (properly trained) is already competitive with the top models in operational use for COVID-19 forecasting. In this paper, we exhibit five auxiliary indicators—based on deidentified medical insurance claims, self-reported symptoms via online surveys, and COVID-related Google searches—that further improve the predictive accuracy of an AR model in COVID-19 forecasting. The most substantial gains appear to be in quiescent times; but the Google search indicator appears to also offer improvements during upswings in pandemic activity.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.22.21259346: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


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    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
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    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


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