The best recent overview of COVID
June 23, 2020 9:51 AM   Subscribe

At the beginning I binged all kinds of technical articles about the latest in COVID research and felt that I was almost keeping up with available science. Then I burned out. I am hoping to find a recent, accessible but not overly simplistic overview of what we now know about COVID transmission, treatment, research etc.

I want to have a sense of current science based thinking on higher vs lower risk activities, where we're at with treatment and vaccine research, etc. I prefer not to look at dozens of independent references - which I was doing at first - or follow a dozen new twitter accounts (which I think I'm already doing!) to try to piece together the big picture. My desire is for one or a few well recent and written overviews of where we're at now.
posted by latkes to Science & Nature (15 answers total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
Scientific American has this Visual Guide to the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus.

A little older (updated about a month ago) but still valid and perhaps more on point to your concerns, The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them is very good.
posted by exogenous at 10:06 AM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


As I said here, I thought this week's Terry Gross interview of Dr. Osterholm of CIDRAP was really informative on where experts think the risk is now. The article contains a transcript of the major points if the 40-minute listen is too much.
posted by mcgsa at 10:49 AM on June 23, 2020 [9 favorites]


The Daily did a pretty informative update last week.
posted by lowest east side at 10:52 AM on June 23, 2020


I still think this single resource, continually updated, is one of the most comprehensive I have come across -- via Michael Lin PhD-MD at Stanford
posted by elgee at 10:56 AM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]


I found this Google doc to be a very clear thinking through of risks and scenarios in education, by a physician and college teacher.
posted by Mngo at 11:05 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


Seconding Dr. Osterhom and CIDRAP! They have a podcast. As a bonus, I find Dr. Osterholm's Minnesota accent and overall personality to be so pleasant and comforting, even when he's saying difficult things. He has this line I love: "I don't want to scare you out of your wits. I want to scare you into your wits."
posted by gold bridges at 11:16 AM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]


Have you looked at the Disaster Planning/Recovery>Medical/Pandemic section of the MeFi Wiki?
posted by Lawn Beaver at 11:18 AM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


I really liked this interview with Dr. Angela Rasmussen from a couple of days ago.
posted by Mchelly at 12:07 PM on June 23, 2020


This Podcast Will Kill You has an ongoing series of episodes about COVID-19 and they delve pretty deep into the most recent science (including social science, tackling things like mental health and impact disparities) in an approachable and downright soothing way.
posted by Freyja at 12:07 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


This Week in Virology podcast by a few scientist.

There is also a free Columbia online Virology class of this past semester. And since the pandemic happened, the professor added relevant Covid-19 information into the lectures. You will get an education in fascinating things about viruses.

Bob Wachter from UC San Francisco is a worthy follow on twitter. Each Thursday, he hosts a Grand Round with other scientist summarizing what they learned that week.
posted by gloturtle at 12:25 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


I like COVID Explained from Emily Oster (whose books about how to handle the scientific literature and risk wrt childbirth and parenting are regularly recommended here).
posted by caek at 3:13 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


Derek Lowe’s In the Pipeline blog has been covering the drug/vaccine angle in what I think is an accessible way for a well-read layperson. I trust his scientific acumen.
posted by lakeroon at 4:33 PM on June 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


Ed Yong has been doing consistently excellent work on COVID for The Atlantic.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:55 PM on June 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


Totally biased, but I think the Johns Hopkins page is well curated, up to date, and informative. It also has a number of links to external resources as well.
posted by charmcityblues at 7:21 PM on June 23, 2020


https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/yxmvjqywprz/index.html

Reuters is tracking medical developments, potential treatments, etc
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 12:23 AM on June 24, 2020


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