Teen who built coronavirus tracking tool creates site to keep Floyd protesters safe
Cities across the U.S. are lively with civil unrest as protesters decked out in masks express discontent with police brutality and systemic racism around the country, all in the midst of a global pandemic.
Avi Schiffmann, a high school student from Mercer Island, Washington, created a website that tracks coronavirus cases globally in early 2020, according to GeekWire. The high school junior won a Webby award for his site, and now he’s focusing on a new project as mass protests break out around the country in response to the murder of George Floyd, who died after a former Minneapolis police officer placed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, GeekWire reported.
Schiffmann announced the website, 2020Protests.com, was active on Tuesday on his Twitter page. The site allows the user to track protests in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., by clicking on one of the links on the homepage.
Each link takes the user to a new page that includes directions to protests in each city where they’re taking place, how to stay safe while protesting, information on curfews, whether the state has requested the national guard and how to donate to bail funds, activist organizations and black-owned businesses in each state. The website also provides links to petitions asking for justice for Floyd.
The website displays the number of active, confirmed cases of COVID-19, along with the number of deaths in each state. Schiffmann tweeted Tuesday that he will be updating the website to include information about the solidarity protests taking place around the world.
Schiffmann’s first site, nCoV2019.live, tracks the world’s total confirmed coronavirus cases, deaths, recoveries and the number of vaccines in progress. The user is able to look at information for specific countries as well as states.
A key feature of Schiffmann’s coronavirus tracking site is that it displays how many new cases have been recorded that day, an important factor as protests continue around the country. A blog from King County, Washington, Public Health offers tips about how to ensure the health of yourself and others if you attend the ongoing protests.
“People who have been at group gatherings should monitor their health for 14 days afterwards. Anyone who develops symptoms of COVID-19 should get tested right away, whether they’ve been at a protest or not,” the blog says. “Remember that physical distancing and other measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 are not all-or-nothing — even if you attended large group gatherings, it’s just as important that you continue to stay home whenever possible, remain at least 6 feet away from others and wear a face covering when in public, wash you hands, and avoid touching your face.”