Tracing COVID-19 Data [Funder: Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grants]

There is much official COVID-19 data reporting by federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous communities. As the pandemic evolves, and more information comes to light, there is a call to add data attributes about Indigenous, Black, and racialized groups, and the affected labour force, and to report where cases predominate. The pandemic has also revealed that foundational datasets are missing, such as a national list of elder care homes, maps of local health regions, and data about the digital divide. This project will embrace technological citizenship, adopt a critical data studies theoretical framework, and employ a data humanitarian approach to rapidly assess data shortfalls, identify standards, and support the building of infrastructure. This will involve training students, conducting rapid response research, developing a network of experts, learning by doing, and garnering a trans-disciplinary team of peer reviewers to assess results. The knowledge will be mobilized in open access blog posts, infographics, policy briefs, and scholarly publications.