StayHomeBeWell.org was started by a concerned citizen who began analyzing COVID-19 numbers and posting to their Facebook profile starting on March 18, 2020 – using the hashtag #StayHomeBeWell. New analysis was posted each day as new numbers and sources of data kept coming in.
In their own words:
I began looking at the data that was being compiled by Avi Schiffman’s site, https://ncov2019.live/data, on March 11. While it was a tremendous thing he had built, and an invaluable service to the world he had provided, I wanted to know more than just what the current totals were at a given moment. I wanted to know what had happened the previous day, and historically further back, in order to try to make sense of what those totals meant. I pulled my kids out of school.
I built an Excel spreadsheet and manually entered them into my emergent dashboard, so I could plot the curves. Just three numbers: Cases, Deaths, and Recoveries. March 11. March 12. March 13. Then I started calculating ratios. Then I started making inferences and projecting scenarios based on varying assumptions.
…On March 15, I plotted my first projection. Taking the curve of the global cases, overlaying a simple straight line as a crude a trend line, and then making a parallel copy of that line 53 days further into the future gave me my first glimpse of what could be in store for the United States. At that time, we had 3,400 cases and 63 deaths, and my projection was that by the end of March we would be at 40,000 cases and 800 deaths. I began to tell my close friends and they looked at me like I was Chicken Little.
https://stayhomebewell.org/2020-04-03/
On April 1st a friend and web developer who had been following the posts on Facebook contacted the poster and suggested they set up a website and Facebook page to better host the posts and get the word out. This website was set up – and went live that day, as well as the Facebook page, the Instagram account and Twitter account.
Now the series has a proper home and continues to grow and develop in content as well as audience. We encourage you to comment with constructive feedback – and we urge everyone to Stay Home Be Well.
– The StayHomeBeWell Team