Where Are You Getting Your Information?

I am not an infectious disease expert. I am not an epidemiologist. I just went to public health schools with those very smart people. (Private public health schools. What an expensive oxymoron.) This means that I’m not an expert in Covid-19. But I’m pretty good at understanding and finding information about what’s going on. Think of me as the English major of public health. 

Here’s what I’ve been reading to keep informed. I try to do this only a few times a day so I don't go down too many rabbit holes. 

I start the day with a map with daily case counts:

https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en

Hopkins also has a map, and the CDC as well. But I like this one for the links to news stories (links sometime faulty), and the insight on the change in numbers from the day before. For me, this makes it easy for me to easily check on Massachusetts, Indiana, and California. Also, the CDC map is only updated M-F That’s not helpful for those of us who like to freak out on weekends as well. The different maps have minor discrepancies in numbers, but I expect those differences to diminish as testing and reporting improve. 

I turn to Twitter to get the latest developments in science, what clinicians are seeing in the field, policy reactions and proposals from policymakers and thought leaders. Your mileage will vary depending on who you follow (Russian bots = bad), but given that I already had a foot in this health policy-healthcare-public health Twitter world, I feel . Here are a few key people: 

@ASlavitt offers breaking policy news, analysis, thoughts on the actions your local leaders should take and why, geared toward health policy/general audience

@AarroneCarroll provides health news and takes for a general audience 

@DrPoorman shares personal accounts, resources and lessons from Seattle, geared somewhat toward clinicians, but in a non-technical way 

I also read good old fashioned newspapers (online) for broad perspectives and analysis. Plus, the New York Times always has in depth reporting of how rich people live (no paywall for Covid-19 content).

Sure, the Times reporting can be problematic. It’s important to call out their shortcomings. But at least they’re thorough. And right now, they have resources few other papers in this country have.

https://www.statnews.com/tag/coronavirus/ has good, no-frills science reporting. 

About once a day, I also check local sources to find out the latest on what’s open and what officials on the ground are doing (your IndyStar and Baltimore Sun and boston.com. Note: SF Chronicle paywall is also lifted.)

These sources tailored for me, my biases and my needs. Feel free to share yours in the comments. You'll note that I didn't include reports, medical journals or the CDC here. Not because they're not good, vetted sources. In fact, I look for articles and tweets to cite them, and read them myself to make sure they make sense to me. It's just that, given the rapidly developing nature of the pandemic, I look to newspapers, tweeters and other aggregators to sort things out for me first. Don't worry, I'd never pass along anything from The Daily Mail.