Mapping COVID-19: Applying Ethical Strategies in Web Mapping Decisions

In December 2019, the world was introduced to a coronavirus, the likes of which have never been seen before, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. During the initial months of the pandemic, academics, government agencies, and concerned citizens, among others, raced to generate maps to help explain the geographic spread of the virus over space and time. Maps, however, can be intentionally or unintentionally misleading; we saw this play out during the pandemic as we rushed to make COVID-19 dashboards and online maps. While the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard served as the first authoritative resource on the pandemic, it lacked the spatial granularity required for smaller states, such as Connecticut. Realizing this limitation, a team of geography Ph.D. students and faculty came together to develop a dashboard better suited to serve the residents of the state and aid policymakers during a time when each decision could have vast consequences. This case study reflects on our team’s strategies to address the ethical considerations to deliver high-quality maps and to promote healthy skepticism among users of the COVID-19 dashboard. We first provide a historical background of the discussion around ethics in cartography that we used to frame our arguments and strategies. Second, we summarize our deliverables, starting with an online interactive dashboard for 169 towns suitable for both mobile and desktop viewing. For the visualizations, we tried to balance the right amount of health information so that they were cartographically sound, easy to understand, and not misleading. As geographers, this is one of our responsibilities to our communities.