USA TODAY and the Documenting COVID-19, a project of MuckRock and the Brown Institute, are investigating how many coronavirus deaths are going uncounted. We recently published a story about a new tool that will allow researchers and journalists to investigate where deaths are going uncounted. Our initial investigation shows this is a particular problem in small communities around the country.

We want to help newsrooms investigate this in their communities. We’ve released a clean version of the CDC data and [are hosting a free webinar’(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PxEsCSn9SeqkFn-xQu37DA) to help you use it to report on overlooked COVID deaths in your community.

• The Data: More than 100 state-level data points from the new CDC have been compiled, cleaned and made searchable and downloadable here.

• The Webinar: We’re hosting a webinar Wednesday, December 15, at noon ET. Register in advance here. This webinar is free, open to the public, and will be recorded.

The Documenting COVID-19 team will talk about the death reporting process in different states; CDC data collection on deaths and the issues with those counts; and excess death modeling by academic teams, which helps show the pandemic’s true death toll.

• Source callout: We’ve created a form for the public — particularly medical examiners, coroners, and others who help document the cause of death — to reach out with stories and tips.

Header image via Shutterstock under commercial license.