When federal agencies fail to act, state governments, private companies, and volunteers often step in to fill the gap. The COVID Tracking Project proved this repeatedly during the pandemic. Launched in March 2020, it became the primary source of COVID-19 data in the U.S. for nearly a year, gathering information from hundreds of volunteers when federal tracking efforts lagged.
Erin Kissane, the project’s managing editor, later described the experience as: “When I signed up to volunteer … I thought I’d be doing two hours of work a day for a few weeks. The thing that happened instead was so unlikely and intense that I don’t pretend to understand it … crash-building a highly visible 350-person crisis org for a year is something else.”
Citizen science played another key role in pandemic preparedness: testing respirator performance. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) certifies N95 masks, but real-world effectiveness varies based on face shape, wear time, and activity. During the pandemic, the social media account @FitTestMyPlanet became the go-to source for standardized respirator testing, compiling data from volunteers worldwide. Though less active now, similar efforts continue on a Discord server called Fit Testing for Everyone, offering high-quality but unofficial performance data.
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This crowdsourced approach highlights a persistent challenge: while volunteer efforts provide valuable insights, they lack the authority of federal certification. Many users may not even know where to find reliable alternatives, leaving gaps in public health protections.
Beyond data, volunteers also filled critical supply shortages. Mask blocs—community groups that distributed masks, purchased bulk supplies, or accepted donations—operated in over 100 U.S. locations and beyond. After the Palisades fire in Southern California, these groups provided masks when larger organizations like the American Red Cross couldn’t keep up with demand. Their work showed how grassroots networks could respond faster than institutional systems.
Private companies also stepped in where government moved slowly. Charity Dean, a former California public health official, founded The Public Health Company after frustration with federal politics distorting disease reporting. Her firm now sells accurate, unfiltered health alerts to clients such as the U.S. Department of Defense. But such services come with a cost: access is limited to those who can pay, leaving many communities behind.
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Academics and researchers contributed in unexpected ways. Richard Corsi and James Rosenthal developed a low-cost air purifier to reduce COVID-19 transmission, then created the Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation to distribute it to underserved groups. Meanwhile, Marc Johnson at the University of Missouri runs @SolidEvidence, a verified Twitter account providing evidence-based updates, while Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers now publishes Force of Infection, a Substack tracking infectious diseases as federal trust erodes.
Even outside pandemics, nonfederal groups address long-standing gaps. The First Street Foundation, a nonprofit, used affordable computing to update flood maps years ahead of FEMA, which had stalled due to bureaucratic delays.
