Share and Follow
For the past four years, Mike Honey has dedicated several hours each week to collecting and sharing crucial COVID-19 data.
Paul Griffin, an infectious disease expert and clinical microbiologist at the University of Queensland, remarked, “The service he has provided is incredibly valuable.”
Remarkably, Honey offers this service without charge, working on it during his free time.
Initially, he uploaded the information to GitHub, a platform for open-source code sharing, and later distributed it across various platforms online.
The graph shows estimated current COVID-19 case numbers across the country based on cases among aged care staff. Source: Supplied
National case numbers aren’t the only ones he keeps track of. He also monitors variants, vaccine uptake, and aged care case numbers, and posts case charts for New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
It wasn’t long before epidemiologists started to take notice.
An ‘incredibly valuable service’
“Then I came across a Tweet from Mike that led to his GitHub site, which provided exactly the information I was looking for,” he said.
“Like how we manage our hospitals and healthcare systems, and counsel our individual patients so they have an understanding of the risk,” he said.
A legacy in medicine
His late uncle, Dr Norman Honey, dedicated his life to treating leprosy patients and fighting the disease’s stigma. He worked in West Africa before moving to Hong Kong, where he served as chief medical officer.
Norman Honey (centre-right) after receiving a Member of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth in 1994 for his work treating leprosy patients. Source: Supplied / Mike Honey
Though much of the data is now gathered automatically, Honey said he still spends a few hours each week tracking COVID-19.
