This article comes from public micro-channel number: nCoV epidemic map (ID: gh_005b01a8f0cf) , author: epidemic map project team, the original title:” may lie map -Re-examining the Geographical Pattern of the National Epidemic Situation “, the picture from: Sina News Epidemic Map
Introduction
The coverage of patients with new type of coronavirus pneumonia is very wide nationwide, and the daily changes are also large. Due to its inherent spatio-temporal characteristics, it is the most common way to visualize the spatial, temporal and quantitative characteristics of epidemic data using maps. However, because the map presents epidemic data is a process of aggregation and synthesis, the selected spatial scale (such as large-scale aggregation, small-scale aggregation, etc.) , Unit type (such as provincial, municipal, etc.) , clustering method (Quantile method, standard deviation method, etc.) and presentation form (such as panel density map, kernel density map, etc.) Will make a certain difference.
Although the map itself is an objective reflection of the data distribution, due to differences in performance goals, professional cognition, etc., the results are subjective and biased. This will inevitably cause the epidemic map to “lie”. The following is a re-examination of the current geographical pattern of the national epidemic from these four aspects, which will help readers of the epidemic distribution map to understand it more rationally.