Times Swine flu map-update

They added a time slider to the map, but kept the circles. 

Related story in today's paper about how students at Northwestern are building a model using the physical path that dollars take, plus air traffic and commuter data, to predict the spread of the virus. So far, their predictions have been fairly close. They estimate, without the US taking preventative measures, a total of ~ 2,500 cases in the US. Not too bad in a country with 300,000,000 peeps.

NYTimes lame Swine Flu map

Check out the map the NYTimes put out showing where the swine flu has struck.

Typically, the GIS Team at the Times does great work with maps, using timeline sliders, and appropriate levels of granularity to best tell their story. This time, however, I think they've fallen short. First off, rather than using circles, which we all know are almost impossible to compare to one another, why not just fill in the states and countries with the appropriate color shades showing the number of cases? Or, better yet, go granular and show the data at county/province level.

Here's an old map from NYTimes showing state and county level voting results over time. You can select which view you want from the menus on the left side of the map. I think this approach would be better for the flu map, as there's a time component they could use to show the spread of the flu. In addition, the county/province level would provide a clearer picture of the exact places impacted by the flu. For example, in Mexico, are most of the cases in Mexico City, or some other part of the country?