Assessing and addressing COVID-19 information needs via a weather application

We describe implementation and usage of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) digital information hub delivered through the widely adopted The Weather Company (TWC) application and explore COVID-19 knowledge, behaviors, and information needs of users. TWC deployed the tool, which displayed local case counts and trends, in March 2020. Unique users, visits, and interactions with tool features were measured. In August 2020, a cross-sectional survey assessed respondent characteristics, COVID-19 knowledge, behaviors, and preferences. TWC COVID-19 hub averaged 1.97 million unique users with over 2.6 million visits daily and an average interaction time of 1.63 min. Respondents reported being knowledgeable about COVID-19 (92.3%) and knowing relevant safety precautions (90.9%). However, an average of 35.3% of respondents reported not increasing preventive practices across behaviors surveyed due to information about COVID-19. In conclusion, we find a free weather application delivered COVID-19 data to millions of Americans. Despite confidence in knowledge and best practices for prevention, over one-third of survey respondents did not increase practice of preventive behaviors due to information about COVID-19. Lay Summary A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) digital information hub, which displayed the number of COVID-19 cases in someone's geographic area and trends in cases, was created for The Weather Company (TWC) application. We examined the usage of this hub postdeployment in March 2020. We also explored users' COVID-19 knowledge, behaviors, and what information might be beneficial to users of the hub with a survey in August 2020. Unique users, visits, and interactions with the tool were measured. We find the TWC COVID-19 hub has averaged 1.97 million unique users with over 2.6 million visits daily and an average interaction time of 1.63 min. Respondents reported being knowledgeable about COVID-19 (92.3%) and knowing relevant safety precautions (90.9%). However, an average of 35.3% of respondents reported not changing their practice of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We find a free weather application delivered COVID-19 data to millions of Americans. Despite respondents reporting confidence in their knowledge of COVID-19 and best practices, over one-third of survey respondents on average did not increase practice of preventive behaviors due to information about COVID-19.