Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracker Among Top 2020 Inventions: TIME
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BALTIMORE, MD — Johns Hopkins University was honored by TIME Magazine for having one of the best inventions of 2020.
TIME announced Thursday that the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center was "2020's Go-To Data Source" after COVID-19 broke out earlier this year in China.
"If you’ve ever consulted a COVID-19 hot-spot map or noted the infection figures on the cable news crawl, you may have the experts at Johns Hopkins University to thank. Its Coronavirus Resource Center is the de facto clearinghouse for pandemic stats," wrote Marjorie Korn, senior editor of Men's Journal, in the write-up for TIME. "The center’s data has been downloaded billions of times, helping governments to decide where to dispatch resources and when to reopen — and individuals to suss out the safety of hosting a socially distant backyard barbecue."
The university first publicly released its coronavirus dashboard on Jan. 22 showing the location and number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries.
The tool was created by Johns Hopkins civil and systems engineering professor Lauren Gardner with her graduate student and was hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
"It was developed to provide researchers, public health authorities, and the general public with a user-friendly tool to track the outbreak as it unfolds," Gardner wrote in medical journal The Lancet over the winter.
Until Feb. 1, the tracker was updated manually twice a day. Since then, the tracker was automated as the virus exploded around the globe. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has provided a trusted hub for virus-related research and developments worldwide.
Other winning pandemic-related inventions of 2020, according to TIME, included a portable handwashing station expected to hit the market in 2021 for $3 to $6; masks; and FEND, a nasal mist designed to keep out germs by strengthening the mucus lining.
To qualify, an invention had to have passed some milestone between October 2019 and September 2020.
TIME solicited its editors and correspondents for ideas. Following an online application process, editors looked at originality, impact, effectiveness, creativity and ambition in culling the winners.
Among this year's recipients were also the first recyclable toothpaste tube from Tom's of Maine; Guardhat, a hard hat wired for video calls and location tracking; Mani-Me, which uses 3-D modeling to create a made-to-order manicure; Impossible Pork, the plant-based substitute for the other white meat; a combination pantyliner and tampon called the "tampliner"; and Gardyn, a vertical indoor garden that uses artificial intelligence to guide growth.
See the full list of Best Inventions of 2020 from TIME.
Below is the coronavirus tracker from Johns Hopkins University:
This article originally appeared on the Baltimore Patch
