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Coronavirus: The Infodemic - May 19


Small bottles labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe are seen in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.
Small bottles labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe are seen in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here​.

Daily Debunk

Claim: Two children died from a novel coronavirus vaccine in Guinea.

Verdict: False

Read the full story at: Agence France-Presse​

Social Media Disinfo

Screenshot
Screenshot

Circulating on social media: Claims that a COVID-19 vaccine will genetically modify humans.

Verdict: False

Read the full story at: Reuters

Factual Reads on Coronavirus

Animal source of the coronavirus continues to elude scientists
Computational models, cell studies and animal experiments are being used to pinpoint the viral host that kicked off the pandemic.
-- Nature, May 18

Life as a Covid-19 contact tracer: sleuthing, stress, and veering off-script
The task involves a good deal of detective work, profound humility, and tact. It also involves cold-calling people who may be irritated to hear from you.
--Stat, May 18

Coronavirus research updates: ‘Superspread’ at a choir practice infects dozens
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear.
-- Nature, May 14

Can ‘Team Science’ Yield a Covid-19 Treatment?
[B]ecause there is still much that researchers don’t know about how the virus behaves, actually testing thousands of drugs simultaneously can point to potential therapies that logic couldn’t predict.
-- New York Times, May 13

Racial Status And The Pandemic: A Combustible Mixture
Officials are finding it’s still difficult to talk about race and COVID-19.
-- Kaiser Health News, May 13

This Is the Future of the Pandemic
Covid-19 isn’t going away soon. Two recent studies mapped out the possible shapes of its trajectory.
-- New York Times, May 8​

How to Avoid Burnout in the Middle of a Pandemic
Burnout is defined as a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged stress. Given the nonstop barrage of stressors these past few months, many of us are probably well on our way to developing burnout, if we aren’t there already.
-- Lifehacker, May 7

Can COVID-19 survive on my phone?
Yes. That’s why a daily wipe down of “high-touch” surfaces like phones, keyboards and tablet computers is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
-- Associated Press, May 7​

The race for coronavirus vaccines: a graphical guide
Eight ways in which scientists hope to provide immunity to SARS-CoV-2.
-- Nature, April 28

The Best Coronavirus Myth-Busting Collections

Agence France Presse

Snopes

BuzzFeed

Factcheck.org

Associated Press

Washington Post

TruthOrFiction

Mapping the COVID-19

Reliable Coronavirus Information

World Health Organization

U.S. Centers for Disease Control

Federation of American Scientists

Emergency Physicians

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine​

Pan American Health Organization

Google COVID‑19 Information & Resources

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