About the tool
The 2020 coronavirus pandemic showed that public health policy is a matter of life and death. How many lives could have been saved?
When you launch the tool, you’ll be able to pick a country or region and add a policy change to any month in the timeline by using the drop-down tool on the left. Try moving it from month to month with the arrows on the timeline to see how that policy would have affected infection and mortality rates in that region. You can examine what might have happened if the U.S. had responded sooner, or how a delay in contact tracing and quarantining would have led to more deaths in China.
You can also learn more about the history of coronaviruses and a timeline of the recent pandemic by clicking the links at the bottom of the tool. By learning more about COVID-19 and looking at how public policies succeeded or failed during the pandemic, we can create better policies — and public acceptance of those policies.
Launch the tool and see the measurable effects that public health policy has on a pandemic.
Lesson plan
This free lesson plan accompanies the Policy Shift: COVID-19 interactive tool. Appropriate for secondary grade levels, this curriculum will help educators facilitate activities on systems thinking, statistical models and public health policies. Interested in more free curricula? Check out Deep Dive.