data

Misty Oprin

| Rebekah Jones

The Newcomers Cohort (Arkansas)

Misty Orpin launched her Arkansas Covid tracking site in March 2020 to make the Arkansas Department of Health’s Covid-19 data more accessible and transparent to its people.

Misty Oprin (Arkansas)

A novice to the complexities of epidemiology, Orpin focused on visualization, geographic specificity, and active Q&A with Arkansans on Twitter and via email.

The organization evolved into a watchdog role, attending press conferences and striving for clarity from the Arkansas Department of Health and the Governor.

Orpin partnered with the University of Arkansas to bring on an intern to assist with demographic information, and eventually turned the project over to the University of Arkansas’ Department of Journalism after six months of 12-hour days bringing the latest data and updates to Arkansas.

The project is now student-run and continues to provide daily updates and in-depth news stories on the impacts of Covid in Arkansas.

A few words from those who nominated Misty:

“Misty Oprin began the @ArkansasCovid project and was invaluable to me the first several months to make sense if Arkansas covid data!”

Click here to follow Arkansas Covid on Twitter.

Click here to see the Arkansas COVID website, now managed by the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas.

Click here to follow Misty Oprin on Twitter.

Dr. Ellen Eaton

| Rebekah Jones

The Specialists Group (Alabama)

Dr. Ellen Eaton is an Infectious Diseases Physician with a Masters in Public Health at the University of Alabama.

Dr. Ellen Eaton (Alabama)

In March 2020, Dr. Eaton began a Facebook page, “Dr. Ellen Eaton Coronavirus Updates,” to combat misinformation she noticed was being shared by friends and family on social media.

“I knew that Alabama would be disproportionately affected by COVID due to low public health access, literacy, and other social determinants of health,” said Dr. Eaton.

“So, I committed my free time to improving public health through data-driven COVID messaging initially targeted to friends, family, friends of friends in the Deep South.”

Dr. Eaton now has more than 12,800 followers on Facebook, 32,497 weekly reaches, and 25,313 weekly engagements with viewers from across the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Syria, and India, she said.

“The most important aspect of my page is clear, consistent, evidence-based clinical and policy updates tailored to a lay audience with little to no medical background (like my hometown of Dothan, Alabama).”

A few comments from those who nominated Dr. Eaton:

“Dr. Eaton has done an exceptional job keeping people updated and informed about COVID-19, and sorting through all the misinformation online. Her posts have been one of the only sources I’ve trusted throughout this pandemic. (And she’s also treating patients at UAB!) She’s a data hero and a healthcare hero too!”

Click here to see Dr. Ellen Eaton’s Facebook page.

Click here to follow Dr. Ellen Eaton’s Twitter page.