Does Use of Public Transit Increase Likelihood of Contracting COVID-19?

Public Health Informatics Portfolio – News & Timeline

For this assignment, I looked at the article Location Data Says It All:  Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury by Jennifer Valentino-Devries, Denise Lu and Gabriel J.X. Dance.  This article was published in the New York Times and it tracks movement in the 25 most populous metropolitan areas (such as San Francisco, Boston and Washington) based on aggregate cellphone location data.  This data is provided by Cuebiz, which is a location analysis company that tracks roughly 15 million cellphone users nationwide daily.

The visuals included in this article showcase movement of individuals on metro systems beginning in February 2020.  As seen on the graph, the movement dramatically decreases around March 16, 2020.  This is the time that citizens were advised to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus. Furthermore, this graphic separates the movement by individuals in the wealthiest and poorest areas. In all of the major cities, similar trends were found.  Data shows that wealthier individuals were able to avoid using public transit amidst the pandemic, suggesting that they have an advantage over poorer individuals – such as increased job security and benefits like the ability to work from home.

This article is a good example of a function of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as it  allows individuals to visualize and analyze data in order to make informed decisions about a particular issue.   In this example, the graphic shows that people in higher income neighborhoods are able to stay home versus those in lower-income areas.

This data is beneficial to public health officials as they can evaluate how those individuals that live in low-income areas are impacted by the pandemic.  This data can showcase the concerns and potentially can trigger an increase of resources sent to this area. If combined with other data, they can evaluate access to healthcare, distribution to PPE in the area, and guidelines mandates to stay home and mask requirements.

Public Policy Experts who have evaluated this data have also mentioned that there could be other factors accounting for this difference – such as access to information about COVID-19 and awareness of risks of the virus.  In addition, as most of the individuals who are traveling via public transit/metro systems are from low-income areas this could be good data to support the fact that those in “essential” job roles, such as grocery workers and delivery drivers, need access to adequate PPE and testing resources.

A report that evaluates Public Transportation and COVID-19 transmissions was published in September 2020 by the American Public Transportation Association.  This report offers a comprehensive review of COVID-19 transmission and Public Transportation in the United States including data analysis and input from public health experts.  One notable quote is from Dr.  Thomas Matte, a Senior Science advisor for Environmental Health at Vital Strategies (a global public health organization).  He says “the public perceptions and press coverage of COVID-19 transmission risk in transit has created more fear than is warranted by the evidence.”  As of August 2020, no outbreaks have been traced to public transit in the United States and it appears that rates of COVID-19 are independent of public transit ridership.  There is a very weak correlation found between infection rates and transit usage.  In addition, the New York Times conducted a survey of various transportation agencies and it was found that there has been no notable super spreader events linked to public transit.   This can likely be attributed to to several factors:  mask wearing, less crowding, increased hygiene efforts and a higher refresh rate of airflow on public transit vehicles.   Some strategies to accomplish this are frequent disinfecting of highly touched surfaces, UV light disinfectant technology, PPE supplied to transit workers and Safety Ambassadors present at stations.

This data enforces the idea that proper education, distribution of materials and access to healthcare should be evaluated in low-income areas where COVID-19 cases are high, as the spike in cases should not be attributed to public transit usage.

Sources:

Schwartz, Sam. 2020, Public Transit and COVID-19 Pandemic:  Global Research and Best Practices, www.apta.com/research-technical-resources/research-reports/public-transit-and-covid-19-pandemic-global-research-and-best-practices/.

Valentino-devries, Jennifer, et al. “Location Data Says It All: Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/us/coronavirus-stay-home-rich-poor.html.