WEBVTT - Google Searches May Help Spot Coronavirus Hotspots Early

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<v Speaker 1>It's Monday, September one. I'm mo Kelly from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>One team from Massachusetts General Hospital considered whether Google searches

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<v Speaker 1>for g I issues might be a way to spot

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen hot spots. Early Claire Maldarelli, Associate editor for

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<v Speaker 1>Popular Science, lays out how your computer key strokes may

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<v Speaker 1>serve as a stroke of genius in weathering the pandemic

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<v Speaker 1>in future months. Thank you for coming on today. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>thanks for having me. I'm excited. One team from Massachusetts

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<v Speaker 1>General Hospital has considered whether Google searches for gastro intestinal

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<v Speaker 1>issues might be a way to spot COVID nineteen hot spots. Early,

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<v Speaker 1>tell me about some of the methodology that they used. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>so basically they decided that, um, you know, there's so

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<v Speaker 1>many symptoms of COVID nineteen UM, and a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>them are respiratory symptoms, shortness of brass, fever UM. But

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<v Speaker 1>a few people and a narrow percentage, about ten percent

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<v Speaker 1>actually get um gastro and techno symptoms. So that's vomiting

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<v Speaker 1>or diarrhea or just overall abdominal teene. And they found

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<v Speaker 1>that those people tend because of you know, no one

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<v Speaker 1>likes to experience those symptoms. They tend to Google share symptoms.

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<v Speaker 1>And they considered whether a correlation between a searching for

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<v Speaker 1>these gastro and texto symptoms would then correlate with being

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<v Speaker 1>able to predict when a COVID nineteen hot spot would occur. So,

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<v Speaker 1>if there will be a spike in cases based on

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<v Speaker 1>people searching for these g I symptoms on Google, that's

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<v Speaker 1>fascinating because in this web MD world, I would say,

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<v Speaker 1>it would seem to me that we would be searching

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<v Speaker 1>for anything and everything all the time just because we're

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<v Speaker 1>I would say latent hypochondriac. If you will always worried

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<v Speaker 1>about any and all symptoms, How do they do this

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<v Speaker 1>to the best of your knowledge? How do they drill

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<v Speaker 1>down as far as the random searches from the very

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<v Speaker 1>specific searches about something that which is impacting someone. If

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<v Speaker 1>that makes sense, Yeah, definitely. So they use Google trends

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<v Speaker 1>and basically look to at and specifically narrowed down to

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<v Speaker 1>just gas or and testo symptoms, searching only or looking

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<v Speaker 1>for those symptoms only. Yes, I will also attest that

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<v Speaker 1>I am a frequent WebM be used or even have

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<v Speaker 1>the help before. Okay, so the symptoms have they been

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<v Speaker 1>consistent from hot spot to hot spot? In other words,

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<v Speaker 1>what they found maybe in China as far as people

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<v Speaker 1>what they may be googling, has that been shown to

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<v Speaker 1>be the same in nature or trending the same in

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<v Speaker 1>the way that what we saw maybe in New York

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<v Speaker 1>or other places. Yeah, it's a really good question, and

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<v Speaker 1>right now it's still a little bit hard to tell.

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<v Speaker 1>They found some protesting data in this study was actually

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<v Speaker 1>published back in July, and when we did our story,

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<v Speaker 1>we interviewed a couple more gas rontologists and what they

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<v Speaker 1>have said is that g I symptoms are definitely can

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<v Speaker 1>definitely be part of COVID nineteen UM, but it's usually

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<v Speaker 1>only a small percentage of those people. So about ten

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<v Speaker 1>people actually developed GI symptoms and then go on to

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<v Speaker 1>have COVID nineteen. But what they found was that it

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<v Speaker 1>can't be predictive because first people are always searching their

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<v Speaker 1>GI symptoms that seems like and then second all the

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<v Speaker 1>people in that ten groups, all the people that have

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<v Speaker 1>those GI symptoms then a little while later ended up

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<v Speaker 1>getting the other symptoms, the other more common symptoms of

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen. So it's definitely seems to be the case

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<v Speaker 1>that these g I symptoms can predict COVID nineteen. But

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<v Speaker 1>it's just that not everybody is going to be getting

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<v Speaker 1>these GI symptoms. It's only about ten I want to

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<v Speaker 1>go people, and so the big question um is whether

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<v Speaker 1>or not we can use the small ten percent to

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<v Speaker 1>predict whether big spikes will happen. I want to go

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<v Speaker 1>back and get something you said. I want to make

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<v Speaker 1>sure I understood you correctly. Are you suggesting that maybe

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<v Speaker 1>these g I symptoms are usually leading the way as

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen enters the body and the body shows symptoms,

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<v Speaker 1>these are usually the first symptoms that people would see

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<v Speaker 1>in some of these cases. Yeah, definitely. So again it's

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<v Speaker 1>only ten percent of people usually experience these GI symptoms,

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<v Speaker 1>but in that it's usually the g I symptoms first,

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<v Speaker 1>followed by later these more common symptoms such as fever,

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<v Speaker 1>shortness of breath, or lower respiratory symptoms that would seem

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<v Speaker 1>strange and I'm not a physician, I'm just playing one

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<v Speaker 1>on the radio, it seems right now. But in terms

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<v Speaker 1>of what we would classically think of a respiratory disease,

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<v Speaker 1>we were told about how the disease would enter through

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<v Speaker 1>our mouth or nose or our eyes, but the first

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<v Speaker 1>symptoms would have nothing to do with that. It would

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<v Speaker 1>be actually the other end of the body. Is that correct? Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it's actually interesting. I mean there's you know, COVID nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>is a new disease, so there's still so much we

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<v Speaker 1>don't know about it. But researchers have been able to

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<v Speaker 1>pinpoint what they think is a mechanism that makes this

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<v Speaker 1>occurrence makes sense. So there are these receptors called A receptors,

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<v Speaker 1>and they sit on various cells in the body, and

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<v Speaker 1>they happen to sit on UM cells in the lungs

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<v Speaker 1>and in the arteries, but then they also happened to

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<v Speaker 1>be in the gastro intestinal tracts, And so researchers think

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<v Speaker 1>that maybe it's UM the virus that is attaching to

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<v Speaker 1>these AC receptors in the lungs and the arteries and

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<v Speaker 1>other areas that are more common UM attacked in COVID nineteen.

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<v Speaker 1>But then they're also hitting the GI tracks first. But

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<v Speaker 1>also the question of whether of why it hits your

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<v Speaker 1>stomach or your whole GI system first before it hits UM,

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<v Speaker 1>your upper respiratory system or your lower respiratory system. Rather,

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<v Speaker 1>that's still very much unknown. I understand that this is

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<v Speaker 1>a for lack of a better phrase, a white paper

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<v Speaker 1>at this point. It is a study. But have there

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<v Speaker 1>been any practical applications as of yet with this information

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<v Speaker 1>to help people in real time? There haven't yet, and

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<v Speaker 1>that's a great question and great things to point out.

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<v Speaker 1>There haven't been any more more substantial UM studies or

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<v Speaker 1>you know, real time usage of this yet, but a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of researchers think that it could be a good

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<v Speaker 1>way to predict COVID nineteen hotspots and going forward, UM,

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<v Speaker 1>these researchers and potentially the one will be able to

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<v Speaker 1>keep tracking this data and see if they can actually

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<v Speaker 1>use it um as a predictor of where COVID nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>could not. Knowing necessarily how the flu progresses through the body,

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<v Speaker 1>whether it's similar or not in this way, is there

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<v Speaker 1>any overlap from what you know or what you can

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<v Speaker 1>see as far as how the symptoms materialize in the

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<v Speaker 1>body for the flu and will that in any way

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<v Speaker 1>impact this particular study. Yeah, that's a good question. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>The fluid definitely attacks the body in similar ways to

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<v Speaker 1>COVID nineteen, but also different ways as well, because there

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<v Speaker 1>are two different diseases than two different viruses that are

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<v Speaker 1>hitting our inne systems and the rest of our bodies.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's hard to tell right now because COVID is

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<v Speaker 1>so new, um, but it is an interesting question that

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<v Speaker 1>I think a lot of researchers will be investigating over

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<v Speaker 1>over the next year. She's Claire Maldarelli, Associate editor or

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<v Speaker 1>Popular Science. Claire, thank you again for coming on today. Thanks,

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<v Speaker 1>this was great. Thanks for having me. I'm O'Kelly and

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<v Speaker 1>this has been reopening America. Don't forget that. For the

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<v Speaker 1>day's big news stories, you can check out the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow us on

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