One year has passed since experts from Johns Hopkins University began tracking the coronavirus pandemic that continues to bring pain and suffering to all corners of the world. The data collected over the past 12 months tell a grim story: COVID-19 has killed more than 2 million people around the world and infected more than 97 million. The toll has been most devastating in the United States: 410,383 dead, 25 million infected.

On Jan. 22, 2020, two people—a civil and systems engineering professor and her graduate student—started a global map to track an epidemic that at the time appeared to be confined to a single nation. Today, a team of more than two dozen scientists, researchers, professors, staff, and students from five Johns Hopkins divisions volunteer their time and expertise to furnish the Coronavirus Resource Center with real-time reliable data and sound expert analysis to track, understand, and combat the virus.

"It has been our highest honor to create this tool that has been relied on by the public and policy makers across the globe," said Lauren Gardner, co-director of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering. "We all hope to see a day when this vital service is no longer needed, but until then we remain steadfast in our commitment to open data and providing the world with the most accurate and up to date information on this pandemic."