Google have recently set up an influenza tracker that uses freely available public data to indicate where influenza levels are increasing, both within Australia and around the world.
We should of course treat this data (as we do all) with some critical scepticm, but this at least has the potential to add to our store of knowledge and ability to respond to pandemic-related events. An interesting new use for google earth.
http://www.google.org/flutrends/
The site also suggests an amazing predictive link between global google search queries and CDC trend data on reported influenza cases.
http://www.google.org/about/flutrends/how.html
