美国确诊破53万例！这个自学编程的17岁美国高中生，竟做出了全球访问量超5亿的疫情追踪网站！（附视频&对话稿）
英语演讲视频，第一时间观看
Worldometers世界实时统计数据显示，截至北京时间4月12日10时28分，全球新冠肺炎累计确诊病例超过178万例，达到1780314例，累计死亡病例达到108827例。美国新冠肺炎累计确诊病例全球最多，超过53万例，达到532879例，累计死亡病例超过2万例，达到20577例。
新冠肺炎从2019年12月的突然爆发，到成为现在的全球大流感，不过短短三个月。离全世界每个人越来越近的感染和死亡病例，让人们在重新审视生命的同时，也对疫情数据和抗疫信息有了越来越高的获取需求。
疫情爆发初期，美国就有这样一个疫情跟踪网站，实时为大家提供着清晰直观的疫情追踪数据。
网站的信息来源为世界各地政府发布的权威数据，使用网页数据抓取技术，不仅包含每分钟实时更新的疫情统计，而且包含追踪地图、防疫百科等综合信息，助全世界人民抗疫。
为什么这个网站值得说？它跟其他国家的疫情追踪网站有什么不同？
其实，它的不同之处在于，这样一个界面简明直观、数据信息清晰的网站，没有依托大公司的成熟技术团队，也没有高校的科研技术水平支持。仅仅是由一个自学编程的17岁美国高中生创建维护的。
自上线三个多月以来，网站全世界访问量已经超过五亿。网站流量的60%的来自美国以外的国家。网站红了以后，他也被媒体的邮件轰炸了，大家都想采访他，其中包括《彭博社》、《纽约客》等大媒体。有很多医药公司和科技初创公司给他发了offer，邀请他去实习，有人甚至出价800万美金要在他的网站上投广告。美国 CDC 甚至给他发了庆贺函，夸他数据采集和更新做得好。
在接受采访的时候，Avi Schiffmann 告诉《纽约客》：“我只是想让人们容易获取数据，但没想到它会变这么大。” Avi 不但对于新冠疫情的重视比身边人要早，也很早开始注意到口罩的重要性。他很早就开始自制口罩，连他的外科医生老妈现在都后悔没有早听儿子的。
Democracy Now专访Avi
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. During Monday’s coronavirus press conference, President Trump said, “We have a problem that a month ago nobody thought about.” Well, one 17-year-old Seattle resident did. This is 17-year-old Avi Schiffmann, who’s been tracking coronavirus cases since December. His website, nCoV2019.live. We spoke on Friday.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, I started this website around Christmas of last year. And I mean, the main goal of it was to provide just an easy way to see the straight facts and the data, you know, without having to make a website that was biased or, you know, full of ads or anything like that. So, I mean, you can, like, go on a phone and just instantly see like the quick facts. You can see the total amount of cases, the total deaths and, you know, all that kind of information. And you can get that for individual countries, and now U.S. states, too, and all kinds of things. So, I didn’t want to make it hard. You know, you shouldn’t have to go through government websites and download like a daily PDF that’s probably out of date by the time you read it, and, you know, have to go through all kinds of complicated things, just to see, you know, the straight facts. So, that was the main reason why I wanted to make this website.
AMY GOODMAN: But how did you know — how did you know what the Trump administration didn’t know? We’re talking about last December. I mean, no one was talking about this —
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — in the United States. Yes, this was a terrible crisis in China. What first sparked your interest to do this?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, so, I mean, when I started this website, there was less than like a thousand total cases, and they were all just in like the Wuhan area of China. So, I saw this on the news kind of a long time ago, and I noticed that it was really hard just to find the information. And there was a lot of just misinformation spreading. So I decided it would be kind of cool to create a website and just kind of make it like a central hub of information.
AMY GOODMAN: And how did you do it? How did you code this? How do you know how to do this?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, I mean, I’ve been programming for about a decade now. But I’ve only been doing web development for a couple months. So, a lot of it was, you know, just kind of learning as I went along. I mean, you can learn like anything online. I just kind of — you know, if I had a question, I didn’t know how to do a certain thing, I just went on Google and searched it up, figured out how to do it and eventually got it to work.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about how this website works. I mean, we’re using it every single day at Democracy Now!, because right before we go on the air, we want to give people the latest figures.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: How often are you updating this? How does this automatically update for each country in the world?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Sure. So, the entire website updates every minute or so. And the way it works is with something called web scraping. So, I’m able to input websites, such as — you know, let’s say Korea. They have a local government health department kind of website that updates those information, those numbers all the time. So I’m able to web scrape those tables and stuff and get the latest information. And then there’s also plenty of news sources, as well. So, there’s plenty of reputable news sources. In Korea, there’s one called Yonhap, I believe, that’s pretty reputable. And sometimes they’re able to get the information faster than those local Korean government sites. So, it goes around, you know, for all those kind of places. China, for example, every province has their own health department kind of website, and they have all kinds of information and all the numbers. And I’m able — I basically just wrote a script that every minute or so just goes to those websites and downloads the latest information.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the way you’ve broken it down at the top. When you hit the website, we see it starts out with — explain each of the set of numbers, before you go into the countries, and then you break down the countries.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. So, right now, as soon as you go to the website, especially on a mobile device, you just see the quick facts. You know, you see the totals of the deceased and infected and recovered. And then you’re able to see individual tables that you can sort and search. So let’s say I want to sort specifically Europe just by how many deceased there were. Then I’m able to sort it that way, and I can see all that kind of information for individual countries. And I’ve been working to break it down. So, for example, the United States, you can see the individual states. You can see the same thing for Australia. And later tonight, I’ll probably have something for other places, too, like India, where you can see the individual kind of provinces, state, region, areas.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you have the number of people affected overall in the globe, and then by country, and then by region. You have the number of people who have died. And you have the number of people who have recovered. Talk about how that came into being.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, so that was kind of interesting. So, that, that wasn’t there for quite a while. And I started to get a lot of emails saying that the site was kind of overly negative. And I decided that it would be really cool if I could show how many people were recovering, to give people a more positive outlook and maybe more hope. So I added that to the quick facts. In every single country, you can see how many people have recovered, which I think gives people a lot of hope, because you can see, in places like Korea, I think, they reported more people that recovered today than people that had been infected, which is really big. And I’m also working on things like a vaccine tracker to continue making it more positive, because it shouldn’t have to be, you know, super negative and you only see the amount of people that have died.
AMY GOODMAN: What does a vaccine tracker mean, Avi?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. So, around the world, there’s, you know, plenty of governments and private health kind of companies that are working on antiviral medications, and there are vaccine trials going on. So, right now, there is no cure, but plenty of people are working on some kind of preventative measures. So I thought it would be kind of interesting for people to kind of track that, I guess, you know, track their progress and how far they are into these clinical trials, you know, what stage they’re in, and all that kind of cool stuff.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about who is watching this. I mean, we’re talking about — are you at 12 million now?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. Right now I’m at about 35 million.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re at 35 million viewers —
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — users of your website.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: The past 24 hours — yeah, the past 24 hours has been about six-and-a-half million visitors. So, it’s a lot of pressure.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this is astounding. How many people outside the United States? Inside? Where are most of the people viewing your website from?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. So, what’s really interesting is that only about 60% of my traffic is from the United States, which means that I’m able to see it breaking down per country. And actually, I get a lot of visitors from places like Taiwan and, you know, United Kingdom and France. And a lot of places in Europe and Asia visit my website, too. So that’s why I’m also working on translations, because, you know, if you’re in Taiwan, you might like to see the website in Chinese more than English. So I’m working on things like that, too.
AMY GOODMAN: And what have you been able to learn about the transmission of the disease, of COVID-19, as a result of your tracking?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. So, one thing that’s been really interesting to see is that you can see countries like Iran and South Korea. They used to have, you know, pretty similar kind of case counts, but you’d see that Iran would have five times more deaths, which is just insane. So I think it’s really interesting that you’re able to see the kind of difference in fatality rates depending on the country’s healthcare system and how they’re dealing with it, you know, transparency-wise.
AMY GOODMAN: Who taught you to code?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: I just — I learned myself, just watching YouTube videos and just reading online kind of articles and things. I mean, you can learn anything online. You can learn underwater basket weaving, for all you want. I mean, there’s just so much great resources out there. And I think that’s what’s really cool about the internet. I mean, I can just go on YouTube, and I can find a 14-hour-long tutorial on how to code websites. You know, there’s anything out there.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you’re 17 years old. You’re a high school junior. School is now out. You code hours a day anyway, even with school.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What are your plans now that Mercer Island High School, like the Seattle school system or many of the schools within it are, well, have ended?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. Now that it’s closed, I’m able to work on the website a lot more and stay up, you know, later without having to worry about going to school in the morning. And then it’s also pretty helpful, you know, just because there are like — for example, there’s a student that’s helping me with media things and going through my emails and stuff. So, now that school’s out, you know, more people are able to help me that I know personally. So, yeah, it’s been really cool.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, if you can talk about your — this is not just sort of an academic project. This is, you are documenting a life-and-death moment, not only in the United States, but all over the world.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk about message you have for other youth, and also the conversations you’re having with people off and online about how to protect the most vulnerable, and just what this has meant for you? Has it shifted your view of the world and what young people can do?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah. So, I think a really interesting thing about this is that we’re at the point where we can use technology and, you know, all kinds of great online kind of things, with big things like world events, for example, this global pandemic. You know, when Ebola came out, or, you know, SARS or something like that, there wasn’t just like a website you could go to easily on a phone and just see these stats updated every minute. So I think it’s really interesting how I can help combat misinformation and just provide the straight facts, and also that, you know, this is just so cool how you can combine technology and global health together to just make something really neat. And I hope it inspires a lot of people to, you know, maybe learn programming and make their own tracker in the future, because the more information that’s easily accessible, the better. You know, you shouldn’t have to read Korean government websites to just know how many people are infected in Korea. So, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I finally want to ask you about another 17-year-old, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, known for her Fridays for Future school strikes. She just called for digital strikes during the coronavirus outbreak, instead of the mass public events that happen in many communities. She tweeted, “We can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis and we must unite behind experts and science. This of course goes for all crises. Now the experts urge us to avoid big public gatherings for a better chance to #flattenthecurve and slow the spreading of the Coronavirus. … We young people are the least affected by this virus but it’s essential that we act in solidarity with the most vulnerable and that we act in the best interest of our common society.” Had you heard about Greta Thunberg? And what are your final thoughts, Avi?
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean, I agree. It’s definitely a big thing that we’re able to use all these resources. You know, as myself, I’m just 17, but it’s really cool that I’m able to provide — you know, for example, there’s a wiki page on the site that has all kinds of information, what to do if you’re infected or, you know, the symptoms and kind of things. And I think it’s really cool that I’m able to put that information out there for the rest of the world and all kinds of adults, that that way they can just, you know, easily access it.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Avi Schiffmann, I want to thank you for being with us. Avi is 17 years old, high school junior at Mercer Island High School, which has closed. It’s right outside Seattle, Washington. He developed this most remarkable coronavirus tracker. And finally, Avi, when I was asking you how you pronounce the name of your website, you said you might be changing it. Tell us the website again and what you’re thinking of changing it to.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What you — why you came up with that name.
AVI SCHIFFMANN: Sure. So, right now the website domain is nCoV2019.live, which is pretty hard to even say or remember. So, I mean, that used to be the unofficial name of the virus, but now that it’s changed, I’d like to rename the website. I bought a domain called GermTracker.com. That way, it’s so much easier to remember. And that way, I can also use it in the future for more global pandemics, I mean, because there’s only going to be another big thing a couple years from now. And, you know, I’ll be the first one to make a tracker for it. So…
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much, Avi. Again, all the very, very best to you, to your family, to the community. And thank you for helping the entire community, not only in this country, but around the world. Avi Schiffmann, 17-year-old high school junior, speaking to us from Seattle, Washington.
AMY GOODMAN: That does it for our show. Democracy Now! is produced by remarkable group of people. I want to thank Julie Crosby and Miriam Barnard. Democracy Now! produced by Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Nermeen Shaikh, Carla Wills, Tami Woronoff, Libby Rainey, Sam Alcoff, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Charina Nadura, Tey-Marie Astudillo, Adriano Contreras, María Taracena. Special thanks to Mike DiFilippo, Miguel Nogueira. Happy Birthday to Julia Thomas! And thank you so much to Becca Staley. I’m Amy Goodman.
Talk about going viral.
Avi Schiffmann, the 17-year-old high school student from Mercer Island, Wash., just outside Seattle, started working on his coronavirus information website — ncov2019.live — in early January. GeekWire profiled his efforts in early March and the rest of the world has been clicking non-stop.
On Tuesday, a guy who recognizes viral content when he sees it, shined a light on Schiffmann.
Rex Chapman, the former NBA basketball star who has transitioned into some sort of Twitter video savant, tweeted a report on Schiffmann by Bloomberg to his 648,000 followers.
Along with a mix of silly content and plenty of good dogs in his feed, Chapman is used to calling out heartwarming content and heroes of all varieties. In a profile last month, ESPN called his work “a Twitter feed for our time” as Chapman scoffed at the notion that he could be considered a “social media influencer.”
But he was impressed by Schiffmann’s age and initiative and the fact that the kid turned down big ad dollars for his website. Thousands of likes, replies and retweets from his followers backed that sentiment.
In the Bloomberg video shot at his home with his family, Schiffmann says he has about 30 million visitors a day to his site, which serves as a database for regions around the world and how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am spending most of my free time working on it,” Schiffmann told GeekWire back in March. “I get about 100 emails a day for bug fixes, feature requests, that kind of thing, so I am always working on adding new things.”
On his own Twitter feed, Schiffmann tries to let people know what fixes are being made or what tweaks are coming. Much like the virus he is tracking, it doesn’t appear that the work or the correspondence is slowing down.
全球访问量破5亿的疫情追踪网站
建立者竟是自学编程的17岁少年
Avi也意识到自己所做的事情正在发挥着越来越大的价值，Avi Schiffmann担起了更重的责任，每天投入大量时间在网站的完善工作中。
“我每天要花上多达6个小时的时间来改善这个网站。在第二版网站上线之前，我的周末都是在自己的房间里度过的，这段时间我整夜工作，一直修改到早上7点再补觉。”
有一次，他的网站迎来最大的危机。“不久前，网站程序发生了一个巨大的错误，它使冠状病毒病例的总数足足翻了一番。”
很快，Avi Schiffmann就收到上百条用户发来的质问数据为何不准确的邮件。
好在Avi Schiffmann及时修复了网站出现的bug，网站数据更新再次恢复了正常。
同时，这次的“事故”也并没有打破Avi Schiffmann的自信，他对自己的技术依旧充满信心，“总的来说，我在管理服务器方面（还是）做得很好。”
除了修复网站出现的bug，Avi Schiffmann还在想办法如何让网站满足更多用户的需求。
3月12号，他将自己多年“遗弃”的twitter账号找了回来，但他并没有在twitter上与大家分享自己的日常，而是每天发送多条状态告诉用户，网站下一步的完善计划是什么。
同时，Avi Schiffmann非常重视用户们的需求。
他会耐心地询问用户想看什么内容的图表；
也会及时告知自己对网站的完善步骤，并继续让用户针对这项内容提建议；
同时，会对用户的建议进行正向反馈。
就这样，在Avi Schiffmann一步一步的努力下，网站受到越来越多用户的肯定。
大家纷纷感叹，Avi Schiffmann的睿智、勤奋、负责与担当，远远超过了他们对于一个高中生的期待。
有人在Avi Schiffmann社交账号动态下留言：
“你是一个非凡的年轻人，这个世界有你这样聪明和有思想的人是幸运的，你做得很好。”
同时，来自世界各地的人都在感谢Avi Schiffmann建成这个网站。
来自智利的用户，一边赞扬Avi Schiffmann的所作所为可以称之为伟大，一边将智利的数据来源分享给他。
来自香港的用户，也诚挚地对他说一句谢谢。
而一位来自德国的用户告诉Avi Schiffmann，他每天会查看网站好几次，以获得及时的数据。
同时，他毫不吝啬地夸赞网站：“对于智能手机来说，这是最简单、调整最好的网站。”
正是由于他的出色，还没有去上大学的他，就收到了来自卫生部门，初创企业和投资者的数百个实习和工作机会。
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