The digital map shows the intensity of the pandemic in real time.

Back in March, when the COVID-19 pandemic was increasing in intensity in the United States, Georgia Tech biologist Joshua Weitz wanted to create a simple way to inform people of their risk of contracting the disease based on where they lived. Weitz created a graph that showed how many confirmed COVID cases per capita were in a particular county of a state, then overlaid that information onto a live map of the country to make it clearer. The result is a new tool that can show you your exact risk of catching the disease anywhere in the country, and how much that risk increases based on where you go and what you do.

The primary intent of Weitz’s map is to determine how safe gatherings of various scales are in the midst of a pandemic. To use it, you enter the approximate size of the gathering in a slider bar, with available sizes ranging from 10 people to 5000 people. The map will refresh with percentages for every US county; if you mouse over a county, you can see how likely you are to contract COVID if a gathering of that particular size were held today.

This map is constantly being updated with the newest infection statistics. For example, according to the map, if you were to attend a 10-person gathering in Palm Beach County, Florida today, your chances of infection would be about 11%. If you were to attend a 50-person gathering in the same place, your chances increase to 45%. Of course, these statistics assume no countermeasures against the virus are taken; things like masks and social distancing can lessen the chances, but it is a helpful baseline.

“In a way it’s like a weather map,” said Clio Andris, a Georgia Tech professor and one of the tool’s co-creators. “It can tell you what the risk is that it will rain, but it can’t tell you if you’ll get wet. That depends on if you carry an umbrella, or if you choose not to go outside at all.”

Weitz and his associates are hoping that policymakers, event planners, and individual citizens will make use of the tool before they plan any large gatherings.