This study investigated the use of internet search patterns to track COVID-19 spread and understand disease progression across 32 countries. Analysis of symptom-specific search terms showed that increases in searches preceded reported cases and deaths by an average of 18.53 and 22.16 days, respectively. The temporal pattern of searches revealed a clear progression of symptoms, mirroring the clinical course reported in medical literature, with shortness of breath appearing approximately 5 days after initial symptoms like fever and cough. The study demonstrates the potential of real-time, population-scale internet search data as a valuable complementary resource for pandemic tracking, especially in the early stages before widespread testing.

Tina Lu, Ben Y. Reis