Little things, like taking a shortcut through the park on your way to work each day can make a big difference

to your mental health. Find your little big thing

little big thing at every mind matters. This is

This is Scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm Bob Hirschon.

Getting a handle on how COVID-19 is spreading across the country is difficult because current

models are based on people who have been tested. Since tests for the

disease are limited and not distributed evenly, there's no way to know quite how the disease is spreading.

But now you can help solve this problem, thanks to researchers at Boston Children's Hospital

and Harvard.

Working with Google and other partners, they've introduced COVID near you, a website where everyone can report on how they're feeling.

Capturing on the ground information in real time from the public really can give us a sense of what's happening at the

community level and it also gives the public an opportunity to contribute back to

public health. That's Karasea Sewock at Boston Children's Hospital. She's program manager for

COVID near you. She says your input goes into a national map that updates constantly, showing

exactly how the disease is progressing.

This type of data will be useful in terms of predictive modeling of understanding or potential hotspots

currently exist or could exist in the next few weeks to few months to however long the outbreak

continues. The site's useful for the public as well. We also really were inspired to create a tool where users can get an idea of COVID related symptoms in their local area.

We want users to learn about potential areas that could be highly affected by this pandemic.

And I think it gives an opportunity to see what's happening at the national scale too from symptom

reported data from others just like them across the US.

Participating is easy. Just go to the website COVID near you.org and let them know if

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