Section 5: Future directions (from DOI:10.14218/ERHM.2020.00023)
From publication: "Trends and Prediction in Daily New Cases and Deaths of COVID-19 in the United States: An Internet Search-Interest Based Model" published as Explor Res Hypothesis Med; 2020 Apr 18 ; 5 (2) 1-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14218/ERHM.2020.00023
Section 5: Future directions
Despite the high correlation coefficients in retrospective study/modeling, the prediction-models based on the search-interest trend reached low accuracies during a 7-day follow-up. Additional studies are warranted to understand and improve these models. Why the prediction model failed should also be examined. The April 3 CDC recommendation of more indications for mask-use might be one of the reasons. Finally, the factors linked to and the epidemiological significance of lag time revealed by this study should also be further explored.