Category: Corona Virus

The level of debt in Americas corporate sector amounts to 75 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, breaking the previous record set in 2008. Among large American companies, debt burdens are precariously high in the auto, hospitality and transportation sectors industries taking a direct hit from the coronavirus.

Hidden within the $16 trillion corporate debt market are many potential troublemakers, including the zombies. They are the natural spawn of a long period of record low interest rates, which has sent investors on a restless hunt for debt products that offer higher reward, with higher risk. Zombies now account for 16 percent of all the publicly traded companies in the United States, and more than 10 percent in Europe, according to the Bank for International Settlements, the bank for central banks. A look at the data reveals that zombies are especially prevalent in commodity industries like mining, coal and oil, which may spell upheavals to come for the shale oil industry, now a critical driver of the American economy.

Zombies are not the only potential source of trouble. To avoid regulations imposed on public companies since 2008, many have gone private in deals that typically saddle the company with huge debts. The average American company owned by a private equity firm has debts equal to six times its annual earnings, a level twice what ratings agencies consider junk.

Signs of debt stress are now multiplying in industries impacted by the coronavirus, including transportation and leisure, auto and, perhaps worst of all, oil. Slammed on one side by fear that the coronavirus will collapse demand, and on the other by fears of a supply glut, oil prices have fallen to below $35 a barrel far too low for many oil companies to meet their debt and interest payments.

Though investors always demand higher returns to buy bonds issued by financially shaky companies, the premium they demand on U.S. junk debt has nearly doubled since mid-February. By last week the premium they demand on the junk debt of oil companies was nearing levels seen in a recession.

Though the world has yet to see a virus-induced recession, this is now a rare pandemic. The direct effect on economic activity will be magnified not only by its impact on balky debtors, but also by the impact of failing companies on the bloated financial markets.

When markets fall, millions of investors feel less wealthy and cut back on spending. The economy slows. The bigger markets get, relative to the economy, the larger this negative wealth effect. And thanks again to seemingly endless promises of easy money, markets have never been bigger. Since 1980 the global financial markets (mainly stocks and bonds) have quadrupled to four times the size of the global economy, above the previous record highs set in 2008.

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This Is How the Coronavirus Will Destroy the Economy - The New York Times

Fame can afford a person a lot of privileges, but immunity to the coronavirus COVID-19 is not one of them. As some celebrities misguidedly don hazmat suits and face masks to protect themselves, others have begun wisely self-isolating as a preventative measure. And perhaps more important, several are using their platforms to urge everyone to stay informed and take this pandemic seriously.

But because no one is immune, several celebrities, athletes, politicians, and other public figures have been diagnosed. As the pandemic continues, we will keep this list updated. In the meantime, theres no time like the present for a refresher course in how to protect yourself.

This post has been updated.

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Every Star and Public Figure Diagnosed with COVID-19: A Running List - The Daily Beast

A passengers temperature is taken on arrival at MurtalaMuhammedInternational Airport. On 27 February, Nigeria became the first sub-Saharan country to report a COVID-19 case.

By Linda NordlingMar. 15, 2020 , 7:00 PM

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICALate on Sunday evening, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a televised address to the nation, declared that COVID-19, the respiratory disease spreading globally, had become a national disaster. The declaration allows his government to access special funding and instigate harsh regulations to combat the viral outbreak. Never before in the history of our democracy have we been confronted by such a severe situation, Ramaphosa saidbefore announcing a raft of measures to curb the virusspread, including school closures, travel restrictions, and bans on large gatherings.

So far, the official numbers seemed to suggest that sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than1 billion people, had been lucky. The interactive map of reported COVID-19 cases run by Johns Hopkins University shows big red blobs almost everywhereexcept sub-Saharan Africa.

But now the numbers are rising quickly. South Africa, which had its first case 10 days ago, now has 61. According to Ramaphosa, the virus has begun spreading inside the country. And just yesterday, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, and Namibia all reported their first cases, bringing the number of affected countries to 23. Some scientists believe COVID-19 is circulating silently in other countries as well. My concern is that we have this ticking time bomb,says Bruce Bassett, a data scientist at the University of Cape Town who has been tracking COVID-19 data since January.

And although Africas handling of the pandemic has received scant global attention so far, experts worry the virus may ravage countries with weak health systems and a population disproportionately affected by HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and other infectious diseases. Social distancingwill be hard to do in the continents overcrowded cities and slums.

We really have no idea how COVID-19 will behave in Africa, says pediatrician and HIV researcher Glenda Gray, president of the South AfricanMedical Research Council. Last month, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian, said his biggest concern was COVID-19 spreading in countries with weak health systems.

Sub-Saharan Africa detected its first case only on 27 February, in an Italian man who had traveled to Nigeria. Most other cases since then were importedfrom Europe; fewer came from the Americas and Asia. But until today, there were no examples of community spread.

Thats not simply because of a lack of testing. More than 40 countries in Africa now have the ability to test for COVID-19, up from only two during the early stages of the outbreak in China. But the focus of African COVID-19 surveillance has been at countriespoints of entry, and testing has targeted people with a recent travel history to outbreak areas abroad. However, screening passengers for fever hasshown to be largely ineffective, because it doesnt catch people still in their incubation phaseup to 14 days for COVID-19. It also wont detect cases that occur in African communities. I do think that cases are slipping through the net. There is an urgent need to investigate and address this point, says Francine Ntoumi, a parasitologist and public health expert at Marien Ngouabi University in the Republic of Congo.

One way to find out whether the disease is spreading in the community is by looking at patients presenting with flulike illnesses at clinics and hospitals. The number of such patients isnt increasing yet in Durban, which is inKwaZuluNatal,the province with South Africas highest HIV infection rate, says Salim Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. Nor are they seeing a rise in older patients with acute respiratory distress. Based on this, I feel reasonably confident that we do not have widespread community spread that is undetected, Abdool Karim says.

But he thinks its just a matter of time before imported cases of COVID-19most of whom would be relatively wealthy people who can afford to traveltrickle down to the countrys most vulnerable communities. Patients who came from Europe will likely have interacted with South Africans prior to their diagnosis, including household help, who often take crowded minibuses to their homes in low-income areasperfect conditions for COVID-19 to spread. I think it is inevitable that we will have a substantial epidemic, Abdool Karim says.

Another way to reality-check reported COVID-19 cases is to scour surveillance systems that track influenzalike illnesses for unusual spikes. The Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System is showing elevated levels for some African countries, says John Nkengasong, director of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), which is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. But that might be for reasons other than COVID-19, he says, like improvements in the quality of surveillance data. Its also unclear how sensitive such detection methods are. In the United States, where the reported caseload is much higher than in Africa, scientists are seeing potential signals in data sets tracking influenzalike illness in older age groups, which are disproportionately afflicted by COVID-19, says Yale University epidemiologist Dan Weinberger. But whether that is disease or increased health care seeking is another matter, Weinberger tweeted in response to a question fromScience.

Africa CDC is working with countries to make suresamples sent to national surveillance sites that test negative for influenza or other known respiratory illness are screened for COVID-19 as well, Nkengasong says. That may help provide further clarity on the question of possible undetected cases.

We really have no idea how COVID-19 will behave in Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa has one major advantage when it comes to COVID-19: Its average age is the lowest in the world. (The median age is less than20.) Children rarely get sick from COVID-19, and most young adults appear to suffer mild symptoms; older people have a significantly higher risk of severe disease and death. Only 3% of sub-Saharan Africas population is older than65, compared with about 12% in China.

Some scientists also think the high temperatures in many African countries may make life harder for the virus that causes COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Grey thinks thats plausible; South Africas flu season only starts in April when it gets colder. But whether COVID-19 will turn out to be a seasonal disease is still very much an open question.

Many other factors could make the pandemic worse in Africa. It will be hard to apply the interventions that have beaten back the virus to very low levels in China and have helped South Korea keep the epidemic more or less in check. Several countries have already introduced rules to thwart spread; Rwanda announced it would close places of worship, schools, and universities after its first case. But social distancing may be impossible in crowded townships, and its not clear how confinement would work in African households where many generations live together, Ntoumi says. How do you protect the elderly, how can you tell village populations to wash their hands when there is no water, or use gel to sanitize their hands when they dont have enough money for food? Im afraid it will be chaos, she says.

And many African countries simply dont have the health care capacity to look after severely ill COVID-19 patients. A 2015 paper found that Kenya, a nation of 50 million people that declared its first case a few days ago, only had 130 intensive care unit beds and only about 200 specialized intensive care nurses. Many other countries face similar constraints, says Ifedayo Adetifa, a clinical epidemiologist at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme: Broad-based population pyramid or not, with no universal health care and no health insurance, we simply cant afford to have many COVID-19 cases because we cant manage the most severe cases.

The high rates of other diseases could further complicate matters. The most important thing for us is to describe the natural history of COVID-19 in South Africa to see if TB and HIV makes it worse, Gray says. Chances are that it will, based on experience with other respiratory infections. Last week, the Academy of Sciences of South Africa warned that people living with HIV are eight times more likely to be hospitalized for pneumonia caused by the influenza virus than the general population, and are three times more likely to die from it.

If cases continue to increase in South Africa, its scientists stand ready to study potential therapies. The country has a wealth of expertise and infrastructure for running randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCTs), for instance of HIV and TB drugs and vaccines. What were doing is trying to quickly identify sites so that, if this thing takes off, the big hospitals that have the capacity to do RCTs are ready to participate in treatment research, says Helen Rees, executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. Other research priorities for the country include finding ways to keep mild cases out of hospitalsto prevent the health system from becoming overwhelmedand finding the best ways topreventhealth care workers and other at-risk groups from becoming infected, Rees adds.

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'A ticking time bomb': Scientists worry about coronavirus spread in Africa - Science Magazine

In addition to its severe cost to human life, the novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on a number of industries including airlines, cruises, and conferences. As people and governments and public health experts stress the importance of social distancing as a way to stem the spread of the contagion, restaurants are seeing major declines in patronage. Meanwhile, newly announced city-wide closures of restaurants stand to make the trend more severe.

We used data from restaurant reservation system OpenTable to look at the year-over-year change in restaurant diner numbers on three consecutive Saturdays in February and March. You can see in the chart below the abrupt change in the number of seated diners. In New York City and Boston, patronage was down 64 percent on Saturday, March 14, compared with the same night a year earlier. Indeed, every major city appears to have felt a severe drop:

On Sunday, governments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, and Washington state officially announced bars and restaurants would be closed to sit-down diners and limited to takeout orders and delivery. When new data becomes available, the declines will likely look even worse. Other cities, such as Washington, DC, have placed restrictions on bars and restaurants. Among the various restrictions are mandates asking that these places only fill to half capacity or that tables and booths be separated by at least six feet so that diners are not too tightly packed. Many restaurants had already closed on their own accord, before these measures.

Heres what the decline in patronage looks like for a select few large cities over a longer period of time:

It remains to be seen how allowing takeout or delivery could help mitigate sales losses for restaurants in cities with restrictions.

More than 5 million people work in foodservice or related jobs in the US, and the foodservice industry is under particular strain from these closures, as many of its employees dont have paid sick leave or other ways to compensate them for declining business.

After facing criticism, Darden, the parent company behind restaurant chains like Olive Garden, recently instated a sick leave for its workers. There are still growing concerns that many smaller, independently owned bars and restaurants might not be able to do so.

When it released its data set, OpenTable provided some advice to diners albeit advice that could benefit its business. Please support your local restaurants during this turbulent time, as they are a vital part of our communities. Many operate on thin margins and fear staff layoffs and shut downs, the company said. Home delivery through the OpenTable app is a good alternative to dining out. Another option is to buy restaurant gift cards for future use.

Other industries like travel and retail will have to find their own solutions for dealing with loss of business from coronavirus. The timeline for dealing with the pandemic, including through social distancing, remains unclear, and it could be years before we comprehend the long-term economic impact of this crisis.

Read more here:

How coronavirus is affecting the restaurant business, in one chart - Vox.com

Coronavirus global map

As COVID-19 (coronavirus) spreads across the globe, it is helpful and interesting to track the transmission patterns through a coronavirus map.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has put together a fantastic visual, which maps coronavirus COVID-19 cases around the world.

If youre looking for up to date numbers on coronavirus in your area, this is a great resource to use. Please beware that there are quite a few sites out there that host a similar looking platform but contain malware or viruses. To learn more specifics surrounding the threat of visiting these scam sites and a shortlist of sites to NOT visit, head over to Thomas Brewsters article here.

COVID-19 cases through time.

As you can see in the figure above, the Johns Hopkins mapping platform provides several useful displays. Here we have the number of Coronavirus COVID-19 cases globally through time. While China initially experienced exponential growth, the number of new cases has slowed dramatically in recent days.

Conversely, the number of cases outside of China is at the early stages of an exponential growth pattern at the moment.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the United States broken down by state.

While the Johns Hopkins platform does not separate county-level COVID-19 cases, it provides a breakdown by state. In the FAQ, they state that the decision to update on the state level was to maintain accuracy and timeliness of updates, with the eventual goal to add county-specific information.

Curious what state has the lowest number of reported cases of COVID-19? West Virginia at this time has zero reported cases of the novel coronavirus. After that, it is a tie between North Dakota and Alaska, with only 1 confirmed case throughout each state. Washington state, on the other hand, has the highest number of recorded coronavirus cases at 769.

Coronavirus map with numbers on cases, breakdown by country, etc.

Taking a look at the entire platform youll see tons more information, including the total number of cases globally at 174,884. These statistics are updated as of this morning, 3/16/2020 at 9:13 AM.

Of those 174,884 cases, there have been 6,705 deaths, equaling an average death rate of 3.8%. Nearly half, 44%, of the people with COVID-19 have recovered, most of which are from Hubei, China.

Statistics on total confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) as well as deaths and recoveries in ... [+] the United States.

Zooming into specifically the United States you can see there have been 3,813 reported cases thus far. Of those 3,813 cases, there have been 69 deaths and 12 recoveries.

The death rate in the United States is significantly lower than the global death rate thus far, at 1.8% compared to 3.8% globally. Keep in mind that the death rate will lag the rapid onset of cases in the United States, thus the lower death rate in the United States may go up with time.

Excerpt from:

Coronavirus Map: How To Track Coronavirus Spread Across The Globe - Forbes

SAN FRANCISCO A website intended to facilitate nationwide testing for coronavirus that was promoted by President Trump in a news conference on Friday quickly reached capacity when it went live in a small pilot project late on Sunday night.

The website, created by Verily, a life sciences unit of Googles parent company, Alphabet, fell far short of the wide-ranging capabilities administration officials described on Friday. In its initial rollout, it was meant to point people to testing locations in two San Francisco Bay Area counties.

It ran into two issues: First, it was telling people with symptoms of the virus that they were not eligible for the screening program. And second, they were asked to create an account with Google or log in to an existing Google account and sign an authorization form.

Still, within a few hours of launching, Verily said it could not schedule any more appointments at the time because it had reached capacity.

Daniel Hom, 77, a pharmacist who lives in Berkeley, Calif., and works in nursing homes, said he filled out the survey on Sunday night around 8 p.m. and found out that he qualified for the test. He said he thought his age was the primary factor for becoming eligible, because his son, who is in his 30s and also works in health care, was not selected.

On Monday morning, Mr. Hom said he drove to the parking lot of the San Mateo County event center where he got a nasal swab. They stuck it way up there, he said. Mr. Hom was told that results should arrive within four days by email depending on how quickly Quest Diagnostics can process the test.

I was impressed how organized they were, considering it was the first day, he said.

Verily said it was trying to help public health officials expand access to testing in areas with a high volume of known cases. The new site is supposed to direct so-called high-risk individuals to newly opened testing centers in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, which include Silicon Valley.

The first issue appeared to be a result of what the site was intended to do. It started with an initial survey asking whether people were currently experiencing severe cough, shortness of breath, fever or other concerning symptoms. If they selected yes, the site abruptly ended the survey and said in-person testing through the program is not the right fit. In smaller font, Verily suggested seeking medical help.

Responding no to the symptoms led to more questions to gauge eligibility for testing by asking age, location and other factors. This caused confusion among people trying to use the site.

When reporters and users asked if disqualifying people with symptoms was done in error, Verily said it wasnt a mistake.

The initial question is meant to ensure that anyone who is seriously ill does not come to our sites because they are not prepared to provide medical attention, said Carolyn Wang, a Verily spokeswoman, in a written statement. We are early in this pilot and are going to be learning more that will help us refine this COVID-19 risk screening and testing.

Once deemed eligible and depending on availability, people were directed to a mobile testing center run by Verily in conjunction with local health officials. The actual coronavirus test will be a nasal swab conducted by nurses and nurse practitioners with oversight from the companys clinical research staff.

Ms. Wang declined to say how many tests were being performed. As more testing sites come online, the program aims to cover the entire state, Verily said.

Verily is rolling out its virus-screening tool at a moment when its parent company, Google, is facing intense scrutiny for it push to acquire and analyze health data. A group of U.S. senators is looking into a deal that Google made with Ascension, the nations second-largest hospital system, which gave the tech giant access to millions of medical records without patients explicit knowledge or consent.

Verily said that having people sign in with their Google account would allow it to connect people with tools like electronic screening that it has built for Project Baseline, its research effort to collect comprehensive health data and map human health. The company also said it would not connect peoples virus screening data with their Google account data without explicit consent.

But some privacy experts said requiring a Google account for the virus screening could create barriers to participation or dissuade people concerned about what the company might do with their information. A free self-assessment tool for coronavirus offered by government health services in Alberta, Canada, for instance, does not require any login.

What we need are substantive and absolute promises of care, loyalty and confidentiality that will keep participants safe and convince them that this project is being done entirely for public health purposes, said Woody Hartzog, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University in Boston.

The website has been mired in controversy from the start. In a news conference on Friday, Mr. Trump said Google had 1,700 engineers working on the project, claiming that the company had made great progress.

The website was actually the work of Verily and Sundar Pichai, Alphabets chief executive. Mr. Pichai said a planning effort" was underway in an internal memo a day before the White House news conference. The project was limited to the Bay Area and the 1,700 engineers hailed by Mr. Trump appeared to be the number of Google employees who had volunteered to help Verily.

A Verily spokeswoman has said there is no current timetable for a national rollout of its screening program. The website became publicly available one day before a Monday deadline that Verily had announced.

Separate from Verilys efforts, Google announced that it was working on a nationwide website to provide information on virus symptoms and testing sites. The company had made no mention of that project on Friday when it directed all inquiries about Mr. Trumps website announcement to Verily.

Daisuke Wakabayashi reported from San Francisco and Natasha Singer reported from New York.

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Coronavirus Testing Website Goes Live and Quickly Hits Capacity - The New York Times

Since the first U.S. case of the coronavirus was identified in Washington state on January 21, health officials have identified thousands of cases across the U.S. By March 16, the virus had expanded its presence from several isolated clusters in Washington, New York, and California to 49 states and the District of Columbia. To date, there have been over 70 deaths across the country.

Social distancing is widely seen as the best available means to "flatten the curve of the pandemic," a phrase epidemiologists use to describe slowing the spread of infection. This approach can save lives by keeping local health care systems from being overwhelmed.

In response to mounting cases, states have begun closing schools, banning large gatherings, and urging people to stay home when possible. On Monday, President Trump announced new guidelines recommending Americans avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, discretionary travel, and going out to eat.

To avoid spreading the disease, the CDC also recommends basic precautions like hand washing and cleaning frequently touched surfaces every day.

Globally, the respiratory disease has spread to dozens of countries and killed several thousand people since it was first reported in Wuhan, China in December.

Warnings issued by the CDC recommend avoiding nonessential travel to dozens of countries with outbreaks of COVID-19, including China, Iran, South Korea, and much of Europe. The government has banned travel from Europe, although the ban makes exceptions, including for American citizens and legal permanent residents.

Follow NPR's ongoing coronavirus coverage.

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Map: How Many Cases Of Coronavirus Are There In Each US State? : Shots - Health News - NPR

In the United States, the sense of being cut off increasingly seems to apply to the states themselves, as Washington has been slow to produce either promised aid or a coherent strategy and President Trump advised governors some of whom were shocked that they should look to buy their own ventilators and respirators, which are in desperately short supply.

On Monday, health officials ordered millions in six counties in the Bay Area to shelter in place, one of the most significant restrictions yet to American life in the race to stop the coronavirus outbreak from surging in the United States.

The order, which goes into effect Tuesday, is expected to disrupt life for millions of residents in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. The City of Berkeley also issued the same order.

And families were left to worry about lost wages, about inadequate supplies of medicine and protective gear, about leaving the ill and elderly even more isolated and vulnerable, and about jobs, institutions, relatives and neighbors that might vanish and never return.

Scientists tracking the spread of the coronavirus reported Monday that, for every confirmed case, there are most likely another five to 10 people in the community with undetected infections. These often-milder cases are, on average, about half as infectious as confirmed ones, but responsible for nearly 80 percent of new cases, according to the report, which was based on data from China.

The researchers modeled the viruss natural spread in China before the government instituted a travel ban and an aggressive testing policy. During that time, from December of last year through late January, about 6 in 7 cases went undetected. That situation is analogous to the current state of affairs in the United States and other Western countries, where tests are not widely available, the researchers said.

If we have 3,500 confirmed cases in the U.S., you might be looking at 35,000 in reality, said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University and the senior author of the new report, which was posted by the journal Science.

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Live Coronavirus Updates and Coverage Globally - The New York Times

Ive spent two decades studying the transformations that take place under the cover of disaster. Ive learned that one thing we can count on is this: During moments of cataclysmic change, the previously unthinkable suddenly becomes reality. In recent decades, that change has mainly been for the worst but this has not always been the case. And it need not continue to be in the future.

This video is about the ways the still-unfolding Covid-19 crisis is already remaking our sense of the possible. The Trump administration and other governments around the world are busily exploiting the crisis to push for no-strings-attached corporate bailouts and regulatory rollbacks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is moving to repeal financial regulations that were introduced after the last major financial meltdown, as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. China, for its part, is indicating that it will relax environmental standards to stimulate its economy, which would wipe out the one major benefit the crisis has produced so far: a marked drop in that countrys lethal air pollution.

But this is not the whole story. In the United States, we have also seen organizing at the city and state levels win important victories to suspend evictions during the pandemic. Ireland has announced six weeks of emergency unemployment payments for all workers who suddenly find themselves out of work, including self-employed workers. And despite U.S. presidential candidate Joe Bidens claims during the recent debate that the pandemic has nothing to do with Medicare for All, many Americans are suddenly realizing that the absence of a functioning safety net exacerbates vulnerabilities to the virus on many fronts.

This crisis like earlier ones could well be the catalyst to shower aid on the wealthiest interests in society, including those most responsible for our current vulnerabilities, while offering next to nothing to the most workers, wiping out small family savings and shuttering small businesses. But as this video shows, many are already pushing back and that story hasnt been written yet.

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Coronavirus Capitalism and How to Beat It - The Intercept

On March 11, the World Health Organization officially declared the Covid-19 coronavirus a global pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China, but it has now spread to most of the world and is surging in places like Italy, Iran, and South Korea. Global confirmed cases continue to rise, including in the US. In response, workers have been sent home, conferences have been canceled, store shelves have been emptied, a democratic country has been put under nationwide quarantine, and the global economy is under serious threat. It is safe to say this is one of the most serious public health crises in decades, if not a century.

Its overwhelming including for those of us covering it. But if youre just getting up to speed, or you want to dig deeper, heres a (not-comprehensive, but still expansive!) list of some of the articles, papers, podcasts, and interviews weve found most useful, from both Vox and elsewhere.

9 questions about the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, answered, Vox

What is the coronavirus? What can I do to prevent getting it? What should I do if I think I have it? When will the outbreak end? This piece answers all of these questions and more, so if youre short on time, start here.

9 charts that explain the coronavirus pandemic, Vox

For visual learners. This chart is particularly telling, and scary. As youll see in pieces throughout this guide, Americas failure to test aggressively enough and early enough has set the stage for a much more dangerous epidemic than was necessary:

Naming the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the virus that causes it, WHO

Youve probably heard a lot of different names for this new virus thrown around: coronavirus, Covid-19, maybe even SARS-CoV-2. This short post explains the subtle but important differences between these designations.

How Deadly Is Coronavirus? What We Know and What We Dont, New York Times

This piece does a great job of breaking down how case fatality rate (CFR) is calculated, why the number is often inflated (and sometimes deflated) at the outbreak of a new disease, and where epidemiologists generally agree the actual CFR for Covid-19 stands (closer to 1 percent).

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) overview, Our World in Data

Visualizes the latest research and data on coronavirus total cases, growth rate, severity, symptoms, fatality risk, and more. OWDs custom charts and graphs make the huge swaths of data easily accessible.

Visual: Johns Hopkins Covid-19 interactive map

This interactive map from Johns Hopkins gives up-to-date counts of total confirmed Covid-19 coronavirus cases worldwide, country-by-country breakdowns, and death and recovery rates.

How does the new coronavirus spread? These new studies offer clues. Vox

This piece looks at recent research on how the coronavirus spreads from person to person. Recent studies show that the virus transmits primarily via droplets from coughing or sneezing and can spread even when people dont have any symptoms or are just beginning to feel sick.

Report: The WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019, World Health Organization

This report is important for a variety of reasons. One is that it established the widely referenced baseline for Covid-19 symptoms. Based on 55,924 confirmed cases in China, the WHO established the two most common symptoms of those infected as a fever (88 percent) and a dry cough (67.7 percent). Less frequent symptoms include sputum, or thick mucus from coughs (33.4 percent), shortness of breath (18.6 percent), sore throat (13.9 percent), and headache (13.6 percent).

Study: On the origin and continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2, National Science Review

This study performed population genetic analyses of SARS-CoV-2 genomes, finding two distinct strains of the virus. The first a more aggressive and severe strain called the L type was prevalent in the initial outbreak in China but has since decreased in frequency. The second, a more mild strain called the S type, was less prevalent in the early outbreak but has increased in relative frequency since. The existence of these two separate strains could potentially explain potential discrepancies in reported symptoms and case fatality rates between China and other countries.

Study: Children at similar risk of infection and transmission as general population, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Preliminary data seemed to indicate that children were being infected by coronavirus at far lower rates than adults. However, this study in China of 391 cases and 1,286 of their close contacts concludes that children are at similar risk of infection as the general population, though less likely to have severe symptoms. Put another way, children may be experiencing less severe symptoms of the coronavirus, but they are still likely to be carriers and thus may act as asymptomatic transmitters.

Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the US, Scientific American

We should prepare, not because we may feel personally at risk, writes Zeynep Tufekci, but so that we can help lessen the risk for everyone. We should prepare not because we are facing a doomsday scenario out of our control, but because we can alter every aspect of this risk we face as a society.

This piece makes the case that the effort to flatten the curve through behavior changes such as social distancing is a moral and civic duty as well as a personal decision.

CDC guidelines on what to do if youre sick, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

If you have a confirmed case of the Covid-19 coronavirus disease but dont need immediate medical attention, health professionals suggest self-isolation. According to the CDC, this self-isolation should include staying at home (except to get medical care), separating yourself from other people (and pets) in your home, cleaning all high-touch surfaces, and washing ones hands often. This guide also includes a list of precautions for household members/partners/caregivers of infected individuals.

Six things you can do now to get ready for an outbreak, Vox

This outlines the six key steps that all of us should take to not only prevent ourselves from getting sick but prepare our lives for what is to come (and in many ways is already happening). It includes information on how to best wash your hands, whether or not to buy a face mask, and the importance of psychological preparation in the face of a pandemic.

Coronavirus: Why you must act now, Medium

This piece does a nice job outlining the critical role of time in the coronavirus response: Were living in an exponential curve right now, and the difference of a few days can be the dividing line between a successful policy and an uncontrolled outbreak.

Study: Effectiveness of workplace social distancing measures in reducing influenza transmission: a systematic review, NCBI

This 2018 meta-analysis looked at 15 studies of how the practice of workplace social distancing (e.g., increased use of telecommuting and remote-meeting options, staggered work hours, and spacing workers farther apart) impacted the spread of the H1N1 flu in 2009. The authors found that workplace social distancing measures alone produced a median reduction of 23% in the cumulative influenza attack rate in the general population (in addition to delaying and reducing the peak influenza attack rate). This outbreak occurred under different circumstances than the Covid-19 outbreak, but the general lesson is clear: Social distancing works.

How canceled events and self-quarantines save lives, in one chart, Vox

The primary factor that will determine the severity of the coronaviruss impact is the speed at which the outbreak occurs. The phrase flatten the curve has become a popular way to describe the importance of how we as a society can change our collective behavior to slow the rate of coronavirus cases and prevent our health care system from being overwhelmed. This piece explains the term itself, the chart behind it, and why its so important prevent an overwhelming burden on our health care system.

Study: Therapeutic and triage strategies for 2019 novel coronavirus disease in fever clinics, The Lancet

This study outlines the best practice strategies for diagnosing and treating Covid-19 from the point of view of hospitals and clinics, but can also be helpful for individuals experiencing symptoms. The two highest-concern symptoms are dyspnea (the feeling of shortness of breath) and hypoxia (having a low level of oxygen in your blood). The study notes that patients presenting with these symptoms should be immediately sent into isolation (and receive requisite medical care if needed); whereas for those exhibiting other symptoms, additional testing is needed to determine whether the patient has contracted Covid-19.

How does the coronavirus outbreak end?, Vox

Following the initial outbreak of coronavirus in China, the experts agreed the way to end the outbreak was simple: containment. Now, with cases continuing to spread throughout the world, scientists think the containment scenario is unlikely. This piece gives an overview of various scenarios for how the outbreak could end, ranging from nightmare to lucky. One important takeaway is that the severity of Covid-19s impact on our societies is a direct function of how we collectively choose to respond to it.

The most important lessons from Chinas Covid-19 response, Vox

This interview with Bruce Aylward, WHOs assistant director general who led the organizations mission to China, explores the big takeaways from the missions report. Alyward and Voxs Julia Belluz discuss the playbook China used to curb Covid-19 spread, why response speed to an outbreak is so crucial, whether Chinas coronavirus data can be trusted and more.

What America can learn from Taiwans coronavirus response, Vox

Taiwan is an island of 23 million just 81 miles from mainland China and had 2.7 million visitors from China last year. Yet, as of March 10, the country had just 45 Covid-19 cases, and only one death, making Taiwans one of the most effective containment strategies in the world so far. This interview with Stanford health policy researcher Jason Wang explores what Taiwan did right, and how other countries, including the US, could put those lessons to use.

Theyve Contained the Coronavirus. Heres How., New York Times

Taiwan isnt the only place to stave off a massive Covid-19 outbreak despite close ties to China. As of March 12, Hong Kong had only 131 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including four deaths. Singapore is even more impressive. It has managed to limit its coronavirus outbreak to 187 cases confirmed and no deaths all without closing public schools. How did they do it? What lessons can we learn from their efforts? Two epidemiologists from the University of Hong Kong explain.

How Iran Completely and Utterly Botched Its Response to the Coronavirus, New York Times

If Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are models for how to contain coronavirus, Iran is a warning of what could happen if the outbreak is handled poorly. Iran has only officially reported around 11,000 cases of the virus as of March 13, but many suspect the actual number to be much higher. On Friday, these suspicions were confirmed when new satellite photos were released purporting to show three large burial trenches. This piece, by two Iranian doctors now living in the US, documents how government cover-ups and malfeasance left the country woefully unprepared for what was to come. The most important lesson of the coronavirus crisis in Iran, the authors write, is that health policy must never be politicized.

Everything you need to know about coronavirus vaccines, Wired

The most obvious way to end the coronavirus outbreak would be to develop a vaccine for it. But what is required to actually make a vaccine? When could a Covid-19 vaccine reasonably be ready by? And can governments do anything to speed up this process? This piece has the answers.

Americas shamefully slow coronavirus testing threatens all of us, Vox

As of March 11, only around 7,000 Covid-19 tests had been performed in the US a number well short of other developed countries, many of whom have far smaller populations. This piece explores the important story behind the testing delays, what those delays could mean for public response to the outbreak, and why it is so important that testing gets on track.

How much worse the coronavirus could get, in charts, New York Times

The answers depend on the actions we take and, crucially, on when we take them, write Nicholas Kristof and Stuart Thompson. This interactive model will help you get a sense of how much the outcomes could vary depending on how fast we get our act together. Play with it, and you see the benefits of acting aggressively and early, Kristof tweeted.

Trump Has Sabotaged Americas Coronavirus Response, Foreign Policy

This piece, written in late January, documents how, under Donald Trumps leadership, the US government has intentionally rendered itself incapable of responding effectively to a pandemic. In 2018, the Trump administration fired the governments entire pandemic response chain of command and slashed the CDCs budget and staff. Thus, this piece argues, the US governments blundered response to the coronavirus outbreak isnt an accident it is the culmination of key decisions by the Trump administration.

I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it. Washington Post

After the 2014 Ebola crisis, the Obama administration established the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, under the leadership of Beth Cameron. I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19, she writes.

Trumps mismanagement helped fuel coronavirus crisis, Politico

For six weeks behind the scenes, and now increasingly in public, Trump has undermined his administrations own efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak, reports Dan Diamond, resisting attempts to plan for worst-case scenarios, overturning a public-health plan upon request from political allies and repeating only the warnings that he chose to hear.

A chilling lesson in what happens when a president who refuses to hear bad news is faced with a crisis full of it.

Report: 2017 Pandemic Influenza Plan, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

This 2017 report from HHS outlines the US governments planning strategy for a potential flu pandemic in the United States. While the coronavirus is certainly a unique challenge, the report is worth reading just to get a sense of how the US government thinks about the threat of pandemics and responses to them. In particular, some of the planning assumptions themselves are worth grappling with. According to the chart on page 44, in a moderate flu pandemic scenario, HHS expected around 64 million Americans to contract the illness and 32 million to require outpatient medical care.

Coronaviruss threat to the global economy and what to do about it, Vox

This piece overviews the potential macroeconomic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The key finding: Coronavirus will likely lead to an economic recession, but unlike in 2008 many governments will not have the primary tool for stimulating their economies (cutting interest rates) at their disposal. Instead, governments will have to stimulate demand via fiscal policy a process that could run into some serious legislative roadblocks.

This feels much worse than 2008: Obamas chief economist on coronaviruss economic threat, Vox

At this point, this feels much worse than 2008, says Jason Furman, who served as Obamas chief economist and helped coordinate the response to the financial crisis. Lehman Brothers was quite bad, but it was the culmination of a sequence of things that had happened over 14 months. This hit all at once.

Report: COVID-19: Implications for business, McKinsey & Co.

In this report, McKinsey outlines three potential scenarios for the coronavirus outbreak worldwide quick recovery, global slowdown, and global pandemic and recession and how each would impact the global economy. Quick recovery is extremely unlikely, as it would have required a global public health response equivalent to Chinas. But reading through the difference between the latter two scenarios is enlightening.

From McKinseys perspective, the difference between a global slowdown (global GDP growth for 2020 would be cut in half, to between 1 and 1.5 percent) and global pandemic and recession (global growth in 2020 falling to between 1.5 percent and 0.5 percent) hinges largely on a single question: Is the virus is seasonal, or will it persist consistently through the summer?

Study: The Global Macroeconomic Impacts of COVID-19: Seven Scenarios, Australian National University

Building on modeling of the economic impact of 20022003 SARS and 2006 flu pandemics, this paper models seven possible global economic scenarios in the wake of coronavirus. In the papers low severity scenario, the estimated loss to global GDP is $2.4 trillion. But the costs rise sharply as the level of severity increases, with the highest potential cost to global GDP rising to $9 trillion.

Coronavirus will also cause a loneliness epidemic, Vox

The thrust of this piece can be summed up in one key passage: Make no mistake: The rapid implementation of social distancing is necessary to flatten the coronavirus curve and prevent the current pandemic from worsening. But just as the coronavirus fallout threatens to cause an economic recession, its also going to cause what we might call a social recession: a collapse in social contact that is particularly hard on the populations most vulnerable to isolation and loneliness older adults and people with disabilities or preexisting health conditions.

Amid COVID-19 outbreak, the workers who need paid sick days the most have the least, Economic Policy Institute

This piece documents a disquieting paradox at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak: the workers who are the most public-facing namely those who work in leisure and hospitality have the least access to paid sick days. This means that the workers who are most likely to get sick (and thus spread the coronavirus) are also the least likely to be able to take time off work to self-quarantine or seek medical testing.

The coronavirus will cause a child care crisis in America, Vox

This week, at least a dozen states and a number of large urban school districts decided to shut down all K-12 schools in response to the growing coronavirus outbreak, As this piece reports, the effects of these closures could be massive: Kids across America will go without lunch, families will be left scrambling for child care, and, in many situations, parents will have to choose between keeping their jobs and leaving their kids alone.

Coronavirus and 2020 Elections: What Happens to Voting in an Outbreak, New York Times

The coronavirus outbreak isnt happening in any year its happening in a presidential election year. According to this piece, the impact of coronavirus on voting could be stark: A presidential election unfolds over months in crowded campaign rallies and nominating conventions, and culminates in November when more than 130 million voters and nearly a million poll workers come together in firehouses and gymnasiums, swiping fingers on touch screens or opening up those aforementioned licked envelopes. The effects of a socially transmitted respiratory virus, if it were to spread unabated through campaign season, would be almost endless.

Coronavirus Outbreak Has Americas Homeless at Risk of Disaster. New York Times

As this piece reports, the 550,000 homeless individuals across the US have a double vulnerability to the coronavirus. Not only are they more susceptible to contracting the disease due to cramped shelters, inability to self-quarantine and unsanitary street conditions, but once infected the chronically homeless are more likely to get much sicker or die because of underlying medical conditions and a lack of reliable health care. As a result, the experts expect the coronavirus outbreak to result in a disaster for Americas homeless population.

Covid-19, explained by Carl (who has it), Today, Explained

Coronavirus: Fears and Facts, Science Vs.

Does stopping coronavirus require more surveillance?, Reset

Behind the Covid-19 curve, The Weeds

Mr. Chen Goes to Wuhan, This American Life

WHO daily situation reports

Vox up-to-date coverage

The Vox guide to Covid-19 coronavirus

The rest is here:

An essential reading guide to understand the coronavirus - Vox.com