Mobile phone data and COVID-19: Missing an opportunity?

This paper describes how mobile phone data can guide government and public health authorities in determining the best course of action to control the COVID-19 pandemic and in assessing the effectiveness of control measures such as physical distancing. It identifies key gaps and reasons why this kind of data is only scarcely used, although their value in similar epidemics has proven in a number of use cases. It presents ways to overcome these gaps and key recommendations for urgent action, most notably the establishment of mixed expert groups on national and regional level, and the inclusion and support of governments and public authorities early on.

It is authored by a group of experienced data scientists, epidemiologists, demographers and representatives of mobile network operators who jointly put their work at the service of the global effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Topics

Author(s)

Author(s): 
Nuria Oliver, Emmanuel Letouzé, Harald Sterly, Sébastien Delataille, Marco De Nadai, Bruno Lepri, Renaud Lambiotte, Richard Benjamins, Ciro Cattuto, Vittoria Colizza, Nicolas de Cordes, Samuel P. Fraiberger, Till Koebe, Sune Lehmann, Juan Murillo, Alex "Sandy" Pentland, Phuong Pham, Frédéric Pivetta, Albert Ali Salah, Jari Saramäki, Samuel V. Scarpino, Michele Tizzoni, Stefaan Verhulst, Patrick Vinck

Partner Organization(s)

Aalto University, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Dalberg Data Insights, ELLIS, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Freie University, Harvard University, INSERM, ISI Foundation, MIT, Northeastern University, OdiseIA, OPAL Project, Orange Group, Technical University of Denmark, Telefonica, The GovLab, University of Oxford, University of Turin, University of Vienna, Utrecht University, World Bank Group (Funder)

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