• Roy Williams, Zoran Bursac, Mary Jo Trepka, and Gabriel J Odom.
• University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (Dr Williams); Department of Biostatistics (Mr Williams and Drs Bursac and Odom), Research Center for Minority Institutions (Drs Bursac and Trepka), and Department of Epidemiology (Dr Trepka), Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, Florida; and Department of Public Health Sciences, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, The University of Miami, Miami, Florida (Dr Odom).
• J Public Health Manag Pract. 2021 May 1; 27 (3): 310-317.

IntroductionCOVID-19 represents an unprecedented challenge to policy makers as well as those entrusted with capturing, monitoring, and analyzing COVID-19 data. Effective public policy is data-informed policy. This requires a liaison between public health scientists and public officials.ObjectiveThis article details the experience, challenges, and lessons learned advising public officials in a large metropolitan area from March to October 2020.MethodsTo effectively do this, an R Markdown report was created to iteratively monitor the number of COVID-19 tests performed, positive tests obtained, COVID-19 hospitalization census, intensive care unit census, the number of patients with COVID-19 on ventilators, and the number of deaths due to COVID-19.ResultsThese reports were presented and discussed at meetings with policy makers to further comprehension.DiscussionTo facilitate the fullest understanding by both the general public and policy makers alike, we advocate for greater centralization of public health surveillance data, objective operational definitions of metrics, and greater interagency communication to best guide and inform policy makers. Through consistent data reporting methods, parsimonious and consistent analytic methods, a clear line of communication with policy makers, transparency, and the ability to navigate unforeseen externalities such as "data dumps" and reporting delays, scientists can use information to best support policy makers in times of crises.Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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