Code behind https://twitter.com/mbojan/status/1483183854676582400. Adding an element of dynamism to https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/opinion/omicron-covid-us.html.

nyt-spiral.R

library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)

rawdata <- readr::read_csv(
  "https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/raw/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_time_series/time_series_covid19_deaths_global.csv", 
  col_types = paste(rep(c("c", "d"), c(2, 790)), collapse="")
)

dat <- rawdata |>
  filter(`Country/Region` == "Poland") |>
  tidyr::pivot_longer(
    - one_of("Province/State", "Country/Region", "Lat", "Long"),
    names_to = "date",
    values_to = "cumulative_covid_deaths"
  ) |>
  transmute(
    # Date announced so the number pretends to the day before 
    date = lubridate::mdy(date) - lubridate::ddays(1),
    year = lubridate::year(date),
    time = (date - lubridate::ymd(paste0(year[1], "-01-01"))) |>
      as.integer(),
    period_year = (date - lubridate::ymd(paste0(year, "-01-01"))) |>
      as.integer(),
    cumulative_covid_deaths,
    # Differentiate to give daily deaths
    covid_deaths = c(0, diff(cumulative_covid_deaths)) |>
      as.integer(),
    avg_deaths = zoo::rollmean(covid_deaths, k = 7, na.pad = TRUE)
  )

pl <- dat |>
  ggplot(
    aes(
      x = period_year, 
      ymin = time - avg_deaths/10, 
      ymax = time + avg_deaths/10,
      group = year
    )
  ) +
  # geom_line(aes(y = time), color = "black") +
  geom_ribbon(fill = "red", color = "red", alpha = 0.2) +
  xlab("Days") +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(
    axis.line=element_blank(),
    # axis.text.x=element_blank(),
    axis.text.y=element_blank(),
    axis.ticks=element_blank(),
    axis.title.x=element_blank(),
    axis.title.y=element_blank(),
    legend.position="none",
    panel.background=element_blank(),
    panel.border=element_blank(),
    # panel.grid.major=element_blank(),
    # panel.grid.minor=element_blank(),
    plot.background=element_blank()
  )


s <- seq(0, 2*pi, length = 100)
png("s%03d.png")
for(i in seq(along=s)) {
  print(pl + coord_polar(start = s[i]))
}
dev.off()

system2("convert", c("-delay 2", "-loop 0", "*.png", "spiral.gif"))