How accurate and up-to-date is the information provided by Google Flu Trends?
Historically, national and regional estimates have been very consistent with traditional surveillance data collected by health agencies. Estimates for individual states in the U.S. have not been compared against traditional surveillance data because such data is not publicly available. Because Flu Trends is still new, it’s quite possible that future estimates may deviate from actual flu activity, but we’re hoping to see similar correlations in the coming years. Flu Trends is still quite experimental for Mexico, as it has not been verified against historic flu data from Mexico.
