Clean and validate case count data for EpiEstim

This function prepares case count data for use with EpiEstim by performing a series of validation and cleaning steps:

Usage

clean_sample_data(data, start_date)

Arguments

data

A data frame containing at least the columns "date" and "confirm". The "date" column should be of class Date, and "confirm" should be numeric.

start_date

A Date (or date-convertible string) indicating the starting date for analysis. Must exist within the "date" column.

Value

A cleaned data frame filtered from start_date, starting at the first date with non-zero confirmed cases, and containing at least 14 days of data.

Details

1. Ensures that the input data frame has the required columns: "date" and "confirm".

2. Confirms that the specified start_date exists in the data and filters the data to include only records on or after that date.

3. Removes leading days before the first non-zero confirmed case.

4. Verifies that the resulting dataset contains at least 14 valid days (as required for estimation).

This function is primarily intended as a preprocessing step for EpiEstim modeling. It combines validation checks for input structure and time coverage with minimal data cleaning logic to ensure robust downstream estimation.