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February 6, 2006 - February 6, 2026.
Amazing. 20 years.
This site was started as a hobby site by a few people who lived around the world. Some of the countries that they lived in were: USA, Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, France, Australia, UK, Spain, India, Mexico, Norway, Egypt.
We joined an emerging public health effort on the internet that had started a few months earlier. Referred to as "flublogia", this informal group consisted of:
H5N1 blog by Killian Crawford,
Effect Measure by David Ozonoff, MD
Avian Flu Diary by Michael Coston,
FluWiki (closed) by Greg Dworkin, MD, Melanie Mattson, David Ozonoff, MD
CIDRAP, a group effort led by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH
We collected articles and information in English, French, Italian, and other foreign languages to track diseases globally, which we disseminated online for free along with some pithy comments.
In our first couple of weeks 5 NIH scientists asked to join. "Wow" I thought - "I guess we are providing some valuable information."
By the 2nd year we were invited to Washington D.C. to give advice on pandemic communication to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and related offices. We were also invited in the 3rd year. Can you imagine this? A hobby site giving advice on how to communicate public health threats to the highest offices? We were a bit stunned.
As the years went on we were routinely the "first" online to publish early outbreak information regarding H1N109 pandemic, West Africa Ebola outbreak, COVID-19 pandemic...among others. We became a daily "must read" for all national and international public health agencies around the world.
To further our reach we became "friends" with many, if not all, public health journalists. Most are recognized award winners for their work. We also made sure that our server capacity would be large enough to allow for leading global search engines.
We have never charged for our service. We have never taken any ads either. We have never accepted any corporate or government money, or gifts-in-kind.
We are Independent Media. No one "owns" us. We say what we think.
I would like to thank our volunteers who have made this site possible. You "know" many of our current regular posters: Pathfinder, Shiloh, tetano, Commonground, Treyfish, Michael Coston, kiwibird, SeniorLearner, penquinsix, Lizw, ming, Miyamoto Masakazu, longshots, Niko, Nox, QuadrupleM, Sharpe, Toaster2, Vibrant62, yielddude, & Lance.
Many others added much value along the way: Emily, GardenSpider, Sally Furniss, Diane Morin, FrenchieGirl, gsgs, Hawkeye, Mary Wilson, IanM, Jeremy, JimO, Kathy, Laidback Al, mod tech, morningperson, Nawtybits, Okieman, Ronan Kelly, & Tonka. Sadly, some of our original participants have passed away: Gert van der Hoek, JJackson, AlaskaDenise, LMonty. Thank you and we miss you.
Also, thank you to linuxkidd who is a world class technical expert who keeps us online.
If I have forgotten to mention anyone, please let me know and I will add you to this post.
For many years we have been listed as a source in too many research papers to list. We are mentioned in books and other reference materials. Who would have thought this?
We had an idea and then we followed the momentum. Most of us were middle-aged at the start. And we were from all walks of life: rich, poor, doctors, disabled, scientists, clerks, nurses....
Thank you to everyone who follows us!
Take care of you (and your animals).
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