Bootstrapping the data on COVID-19

How a group of Silicon Valley designers, epidemiologists, and public policy wonks created a tool for truth in their spare time.

On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, Joseph Ensminger received a text message asking if he could make time to help launch a data platform that projects COVID infections, hospitalizations, and deaths across the United States. The first step was getting in front of people who could make the necessary public health decision: America’s legislators, private sector leaders, and public health officials. The challenge was that this list did not yet exist.