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Comment by afandian | Hacker News Reader

I very strongly recommend against putting pages like this up, unless you are qualified, especially with claims like "always updated", and especially as you are giving medical advice like "stay at home".

Some years ago, when I lived in a boat, I wanted better presentation of the river conditions (which you would look at if you wanted to go out for a cruise). I put something similar together. It scraped the UK's Environment Agency website and showed the status of various stretches of the River Thames on a Google Map. Just for fun.

I got an angry email when the scraper broke and the data got out of date. "You're putting lives at risk". I took his point, and took the site down.

The odds are much higher in this case. It might seem like a nice portfolio piece, but could be dangerous.

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This is on point. This is why I never released an app I made for ocean diving conditions. Hydrographic offices exist to provide accurate information, and to be liable for what they produce. I could waive liability, but then I could still endanger people. It isn't worth it. Don't give people advice, don't assume the role of a professional if you aren't one.

Data is already out of date. New Zealand has 8 confirmed cases not 5...

Germany is hilarious. The site is off by 2,138 confirmed cases, that was 2 days ago. We are now at 5,813.

Yep, the data are pulled from the original repository three times per day to avoid too much traffic.

I will try to increase the number of updates :)

"Only 0.0019% of the population has the virus"

This is not at all the same thing as the earlier mentioned "confirmed".

Really thanks for your suggestions!

I made this infographic since I was not able to quickly understand the number on the official website. I would take it as a 'general' website, and I think that people know that they should check the official website in order to have something 100% reliable.

Also, the line at the end is a simple suggestion that any government is trying to say to the population to avoid overcrowding of hospitals. But I will edit the phrase to be lighter and less 'instructive'.

I think my experience was similar to yours. The reason I made it was to make the presentation of interesting data more accessible. But the lesson I took from it is that people put data to all kinds of uses, including those I didn't think about.

I was really surprised by that email, but it was enough to make me understand.

If you linked to your sources, show prominently the last time the data was updated, don't give any advice and clearly state that it's just for interest only, I think this would be less risky.

But whatever you do, there will be someone, somewhere, using your page for a reason you didn't expect.

Just put a disclaimer with the last update on the top. I will edit the suggestions soon, thank you

> I made this infographic since I was not able to quickly understand the number on the official website. I would take it as a 'general' website, and I think that people know that they should check the official website in order to have something 100% reliable.

No, I know enough people that don't. Look into the low educated part of your family (if you have that part). In my family the low educated people will believe anything that says Stanford or Harvard without any source other than just typing it. Heck, they would almost see this comment as reputable.

In your visualization, the data for The Netherlands is wrong by a few days. It's not 804, it's 1135. I remember it to be 950+ yesterday. My source is the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [1]. Apparently your source is John Hopkins? I'm not entirely sure, I quickly skimmed it. But I don't want old information on HN.

It has a nice design though. But because of its exponential nature and my knowledge of humans being terrible on it, I'm on edge. I don't want misinformation or stale data.

[1] https://www.rivm.nl/coronavirus-kaart-van-nederland

I just inserted a disclaimer on the top. Thank you for the suggestions!

Get rid of it entirely, you have no way of words, you have no writing skills. Does one figure out one has symptoms at home? I am to make a call and I have to do it with a phone?

Clearly state you are a programmer and why you've made the page. Then it is cool. Nice visuals... WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Made it. Thank you, nice suggestion :)

I think it would be cool if you made an organized list of other similar data pages. Local ones for example.

This is NL: https://www.rivm.nl/coronavirus-kaart-van-nederland

"In case of symptoms or doubts, stay at home, do not go to the hospital or medical offices but call your family doctor, pediatrician or medical guard on the phone."

This is correct advice: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/business/stay-home-when-sick.htm

That is the CDC's advice for Americans. The UK's advice may be different. I am not qualified to say which is 'correct' for a site available internationally. I don't think the author of the site is either.

And it could change at a moment's notice.

I agree with this. Only go to reputable sources for information [1]. If you have an academic background, then you know how to do this. If you don't know how to do this, ask someone on how to do this. It's quite a nuanced skill to learn all at once.

[1] My sources (but please do your own research):

1. WHO

2. RIVD (Dutch)

3. Dr. Mike on YouTube (and then verify the sources -- mostly medical journals -- he uses)

Maybe one thing OP could do is prominently display the last updated time, instead of saying "updated three times a day". Though he/she does display the time period at the top.

But generally this is good advice - not add to the noise already there on the internet, even though OP's intentions are likely honest and they are just trying to help.

"Data last updated at X time. Check sources before relying on the accuracy of anything on this page".

Just inserted it. Thank you!

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