Instagram founders build website tracking spread of Covid-19
- The RT.live site uses a statistic called an effective reproduction number, which tracks the average number of people who catch the coronavirus from a single infected person
- Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger see it more useful to look at the coronavirus pandemic’s infection rate from a local angle
Instagram’s founders, who have been mostly out of the public eye since leaving Facebook in 2018, introduced a website that gives live state-by-state updates on the spread of Covid-19 across the US.
RT.live uses a statistic called an effective reproduction number, which tracks the average number of people who catch the coronavirus from a single infected person.
“If it’s above one, that means it’s growing very quickly, and if it’s below one, that means things are under control,” Kevin Systrom, co-founder and former chief executive of Instagram, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We’re trying to take what is a complex topic and boil it down to a simple number that anyone can view from their home.”
The data used for updates comes from The Covid Tracking Project, a volunteer organisation that helps collect and visualise testing and infection rates for Covid-19, according to the RT.live site.
While the coronavirus pandemic is global, Systrom said it is more useful to look at the infection rate from a local angle. Vermont, for instance, is much safer than Georgia, according to the US ranking. He hopes RT.live helps citizens understand whether they are in danger, as parts of the economy reopen.
