Wu Peng updates his Twitter followers with the newest COVID-19 information in the UK using daily charts. /Screenshot
A Chinese law student in the UK has been voluntarily creating graphs and charts and posting them on Twitter to help local residents and netizens better understand the spread of COVID-19.
Wu Peng, a 26-year-old international corporate law student at Leeds University, made his first chart on March 5 using the daily COVID-19 update from the British Department of Health and Social Care. Since then, he has created daily charts using data from official sources to keep his Twitter followers up to date on the pandemic.
Compared with the government's elaborate graphs, Wu's summaries are more succinct, with daily charts showing the trend of confirmed cases and rates and the number of people tested. Since last week, Wu has started to tweet one more chart showing a comparative trend in confirmed cases and fatalities in the country. In addition, he shares the latest information from the government and health authorities to offer more channels for further reference.
"I'm surprised. It is a very simple job. What I do every day is draw a chart based on publicly available government data in a timely manner so that everyone can understand the growth trend more clearly," Wu said in an interview with a local news outlet.
The "simple job," however, proved to be an effective appeal to local residents for their attention to the virus. Wu has gained over 10,000 followers on Twitter so far. People see the charts as useful, and are requesting more.
"Hi Peng. Could you perhaps give us a once a day tweet (in layman's terms) to summarize the days. Good, bad, indifferent, etc." a Twitter user suggested.
"Great work! Thank you so much for sharing!! Do you have any data about the number of intensive care (ICU) cases by day, because that will be the key factor in projecting when 'breaking-point' may be reached for the NHS," Twitter user @HutGee wrote.
Wu's personal digital update for the UK also made a sensation on Chinese social media with 230 million "reaches" for the hashtag "Overseas Chinese student Wu Peng."
"Well done. [He] did what the official authority should have done," commented Weibo user @Pinghedaoyujingxiong.
"The government is doing the data update and what Wu does is draw charts that explicitly show the trends," @Yanghao commented under the hashtag.
As of March 25, there were 8,081 confirmed cases reported in the UK, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Wu said that he will update the data every day and suggested people follow government guidance and maintain social distancing.
