For the last three years, we’ve been aggregating and reporting data, in real-time, and from multiple data sources.
This site was never exciting, simple, or easy to understand in order view the current state of the pandemic, but it was better than nothing. This was especially true exactly three years ago, on March 25th 2020, when we had only been counting for two weeks. There were only a handful of resources at that time, this site was among the first.
As the events of the pandemic unfolded, we initially stayed in tune with scientific and socio-political developments. But, as time wore on, we began to make fewer posts. Today, we only post very infrequently.
As well, visitors started very strong. We served hundreds of thousands of visitors during the first year of the pandemic. Visitors have begun to drop off to just a few people each day, at present.
All of the public counting and reporting sites, are now reliant upon infrequently updated reporting systems globally. Most of the important sources of data have stopped reporting case data now. This includes Johns Hopkins and The New York Times, who have also stopped tracking and reporting cases. For now, the WHO, the CDC, and many global country-level organizations continue to report data as best they can.
All of these remaining systems are, in part, reliant upon local health authorities maintaining and reporting accurate and timely data. These mechanisms have been increasingly inconsistent for quite a long time.
Real-time case data is no longer technically possible
This is especially true in the US, where the politization of this health emergency actually contributed to the reporting problem. As to the response, it will take generations to unravel the events, decisions, and behaviors. The policy and conduct that helped to enable 106,087,835 million cases, more than double the next highest country and 1,153,580 deaths, also more the double the next highest country. The number of actual deaths is widely regarded as much higher at 1.4 to 1.5 million actual deaths based upon the increase of excess deaths in this time period.
Covid-19 has caused more deaths in the US in these past three years, than the American Civil War, WWI, and WWII combined at 1,141,915 dead
The outcome, the principle effect on the data, for this site as well as for other sites, is that the information now is only marginally valuable. We used this information as a means in which to remain informed, make decisions, and to govern our own decision making. Now, most tracking sites only serve curiosity for those that still watch the progression of this disease. So we remain, just as we were at the beginning, on our own and with limited information to inform our decision making.
What To Expect
This site will remain open and tracking until the data becomes completely unreliable and impossible to portray some reasonable measure of accuracy. We can expect that will happen rather soon as the remaining data sources provide less frequent updates, become less reliable, and eventually stop altogether, much like the others have.
Thanks for watching.
Cover Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash