17-Year-Old Teen Creates A Website That Collects Info About The Coronavirus And Now Millions Use It Worldwide

No matter where you turn, everyone seems to be talking about the new coronavirus that’s spreading all over the world. And with such a massive flow of information, it can be quite difficult to follow it all. Lucky for you, that’s where 17-year-old Avi Schiffmann from Washington state comes in. This young man created a website that tracks all coronavirus-related info and also provides useful facts about the disease. Millions of people use Avi’s website and the man sometimes spends up to 6 hours a day improving it.

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Avi Schiffmann is a 17-year-old who created a website that tracks all coronavirus-related info

Image credits: avischiffmann

Avi launched the website back in December 2019 and has been actively improving it ever since. The website updates the numbers every ten minutes by using data from sources like the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and local health departments.

Millions of people visit the website daily

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“I thought it would be cool if there was a website that could pull in all the information from all kinds of sources,” said Avi in an interview with TODAY. “I mainly wanted to create something that would show the data as accurately as possible because there has been a lot of misinformation.” The man is constantly adding new features and says the website is going to adapt as it goes along. “In the future, it might be less interesting to know there are five cases in France. We might be more interested in knowing the percentage increase from last week to this week,” added the man.

The website tracks the number of infected people

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There had recently been an error where the number of cases displayed on Avi’s website doubled but he quickly received a massive number of messages informing him of the bug and fixed it.]

And updates the information every ten minutes

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Avi only uses information provided by reputable sources

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“A coronavirus is the name for a large group of viruses that can cause illness and COVID-19 is the most recently discovered type. It is contagious, which means it can be caught from other people infected with the virus,” said The Doctors’ Association UK in an interview with Bored Panda. “COVID-19 has spread quickly partly due to the fact that it spreads through droplets in the air, which are expelled when somebody coughs or exhales. Others breathe the droplets in or touch surfaces contaminated with them and then touch their own eyes, nose or mouth. It has therefore spread quickly and easily in places where people are in close contact with others.”

Almost all major countries were infected with the virus

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“We also live in a world where people travel often and quickly between countries and continents which further added to the speed at which it spread. Another factor is that it has only recently been discovered which means that it is unlikely that our bodies will have encountered the virus before and therefore will not have built an immune response to it already. We also do not currently have a vaccine for it although this is being developed,” said the Association.

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The Association says the spread of the virus is difficult to predict as it may mutate and change over time. They say the British government are taking the virus threat seriously and have developed precautions and contingency plans. It also monitors the number of cases and tries to track their sources. “What could have been improved so far is communication and distribution of resources to frontline staff,” they added.

Sometimes the man spends up to 6 hours each day improving the website

Image credits: avischiffmann

“COVID-19 was newly discovered when it broke out in China, which means we knew very little about it until a couple of months ago. However new information is coming in all the time which helps to guide the measures we take to combat it,” said The Doctors’ Association UK. They say this makes it difficult to compare the coronavirus to the flu which they know much more about and have also have developed vaccines for.

“For the majority of people, COVID-19 will cause mild symptoms with around 80% recovering without needing medical attention. However, for more vulnerable groups, for example, the elderly or those with underlying medical conditions, there is a higher chance of becoming seriously ill requiring treatment in hospital,” added the Association.

Image credits: avischiffmann

“Currently, the best advice is vigilant hand washing and self-isolation when indicated. We have a collective responsibility to listen to the advice given to protect the most vulnerable in our society and ensure that the resources we have are used in the most effective way,” concluded the Association.