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Wow...10 years....
We opened our site on February 6, 2006. The internet was a totally different environment. No one had a personal or business blog. There was no facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, snapchat.
In fact, the internet was considered very fringe. There were no "apps" online. You still had to visit the bank in person.
But - the media was beginning to realize that the internet had some potential and was allowing search engine bots to visit and scan their websites. The internet was rich with various media articles.
In these media articles, large and small, were many hints and tips as to the global disease situation. Our team looked for and posted relevant material. We added government and research data to fill out the picture.
We were a ?hobby? site but many professionals were joining. Almost everyone used a moniker because posting on the internet was considered very odd but soon government entities like the WHO, CDC, HHS, and various others were monitoring us to see what we had found.
After a few months, major media outlets were monitoring us too and also joining.
As time passed each of our regular posters became a virtual PhDs in digital disease detection - each one with a mental database of various global disease outbreaks and the experience to analyze the situation.
We began to be quoted as a news source in media, research papers, and in the back rooms of international health organizations. We also had a weekly radio show for 2 years interviewing many disease world luminaries such as Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization and Michael Osterholm of CIDRAP.
In fact, we and the rest of Flublogia, were so effective in ascertaining the global disease situation that various governments began to shut down their media. Several countries banned disease reporting by anyone without government approval. China and Egypt are two of these countries.
Today it is much harder to find early indicators of disease situations because of government curbs on media. But we persist and still find information. Our experienced analysts bring 7-10 years of experience to every post. And they are all volunteers.
We are viewed in every country in the world. In 2015 we had 23,109,548 page views and 32,674,617 hits. not including search engine traffic.
Congratulations to us and to everyone in Flublogia. Thank you to everyone who has supported us even when it was not a popular thing to do.
We have proved that a diverse group of people from around the world and speaking many difference languages can work together to make a difference.
We have some congratulations in our email box. I will post them a bit at a time. The first one is from one of the early supporters of Flublogia:
?There's no one surefire tactic or source for monitoring infectious disease developments. But over the past decade, FluTrackers has grown into a unique and vital contributor that proves there is no substitute for human judgement and analysis in sifting out what's important and what information sources are reliable among all the "noise" and hype. They are a not-for-profit group of volunteers that skims foreign language and English language media and official sources, 24 hours a day, all days of the year. That they do it as a public service for no cost is remarkable.
The group is great at flagging reports of mysterious disease outbreaks, even in the farthest flung places. Often, it turns out to be an explainable cause, but it's notable that FluTrackers was closely reporting on an unusual cluster of severe pneumonia cases in Mexico many weeks before the 2009 H1N1 virus was detected. FluTrackers often sounds the warning before official sources do, and they have become a go-to source for keeping lists of outbreak illness and death totals.
CIDRAP is extremely thankful for its connections with FluTrackers and the few other independent infectious disease news sites that play a similar role. When big infectious disease news stories are breaking, it's been priceless having them available to consult and compare notes with. Congratulations on 10 years, FluTrackers.?
Michael Osterholm, PhD MPH
February 3, 2016
Thank you Dr. Osterholm for encouraging Flublogia and your belief that ?regular people" have a seat at the table of public health.
more to follow?..
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