About COVID19now.com

My name is Ross Dunn and I created this website with the invaluable assistance of my awesome design and web marketing team at StepForth Web Marketing Inc. I built it after becoming somewhat obsessed with how this pandemic was taking shape. I saw how much misinformation was out there and how many people ignored the seriousness of the situation we were all being faced with.

This chilled me to the bone, not only for the sake of my two young children and my ageing parents, brother, and relatives but for my wife who is an ICU nurse on the front lines.

I know from private discussions with my wife how beyond difficult her job is on a regular basis, but with a pandemic looming, it seemed likely she and her amazing colleagues could be put at great risk.

This knowledge coupled with my eagerness to make some sort of difference and a penchant for geeking out with technology, resulted in COVID19now.com.

I know there are already many informational sites out there, but I am striving to make this site unique with its data interactivity, live news, tips for weathering quarantines, and much more. With all of that in tow, I hope it becomes a worthy resource and helps at least one person become more knowledgeable about this pandemic.

A Short Backstory:

A few months back I had nothing but a passing interest in the history of the Spanish Flu (a relative of COVID-19) but by chance, on October 14th 2019, Audible had a deal on the book “Get Well Soon – History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them” by Jennifer Wright (<– affiliate link to help pay for the site). The “read” (I listen to audiobooks primarily) was excellent in a sobering and surprisingly humorous way (she added a clever & tasteful comic edge).

A big takeaway from the book, aside from understanding how vulnerable we all are, was the level of shocking arrogance we humans presented even after the virility of the flu became clear; which served to efficiently spread the Spanish Flu to stomach-churning results.

Not long after reading it, there were stirrings of an epidemic in the Wuhan Province of China. This captured my attention, especially once I saw how quickly it was spreading and the intensity to which China took to “flattening the curve.”

From that point onwards, I watched with growing alarm as Seattle, USA and then Lombardy, Italy encountered cases of the same strain. This was followed by a similar early Spanish Flu arrogance that made me wonder if we were going to entirely ignore the seriousness of this potential pandemic just as we did before.

As it stands, there have been amazing cases of unabashed stupidity and arrogance that have undoubtedly spread COVID-19 far and wide. But I am also encouraged to see that most leaders haven’t completely forgotten how high the death toll and impact on our lives and countries could be if COVID-19 were to run uncontested.

I am now hopeful we will be able to at least show we learned something from history and lessen the loss of life we encountered just over a century ago.