COVID-19: key developments for Thursday, February 13, 2020

A collection of key developments in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus (nCoV-2019), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post. Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status page and learn how

COVID-19: key developments for Wednesday, February 12, 2020

A collection of key developments in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus (nCoV-2019), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post. Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status page and learn how

COVID-19: key developments for Tuesday, February 11, 2020

A collection of key developments in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus (nCoV-2019, now known as COVID-19), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post. Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status

Wuhan coronavirus: key developments for Monday, February 10, 2020

A collection of key developments in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus (nCoV-2019), posted throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to the post. Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status page and learn how

Why is it so hard to tell how deadly 2019-nCoV is?

With 2019-nCoV still uncontrolled across China, and global control challenged by incidents on cruise ships, in alpine ski towns, in apartment blocks, and elsewhere, conversations about the coronavirus epidemic always circle back to trying to figure out just how deadly it really is. The disease’s case fatality rate (CFR) — the percentage of 2019-nCoV infections

No, 2019-nCoV case numbers were not fabricated to fit a curve

A new conspiracy theory has been making the rounds on the internet, including the front page of Reddit: that an “uncanny” fit between case numbers and a quadratic curve prove that 2019-nCoV case numbers are being fabricated from whole cloth by the Chinese government, with the acquiescence of the WHO. In fact, the fit is

Growth rates of 2019-nCoV are falling in Hubei, in China, and worldwide

Our ongoing tracking of the latest case numbers of 2019-nCoV in Hubei, elsewhere in China, and around the world has revealed that the growth rate of confirmed cases is dropping, and in many areas appears to have dropped below the unconstrained growth rate in recent days. While these latest developments do not mean we can

Something is seriously wrong with the nCoV-2019 testing situation in China

After weeks of inexplicably low PCR testing capacity in Wuhan, new reports out of China are showing that the country’s PCR testing effort has been yielding false negative rates as high as 70%, both in Wuhan and more developed parts of China whose health systems are under less stress. It’s hard to know what exactly

Good news: three drugs seem to improve 2019-nCoV symptoms within 24-48 hours

Physicians on two continents report that antiviral drugs designed for HIV and Ebola are effective against 2019-nCoV, improving patient symptoms and respiratory function in as little as 24 hours. This is extremely good news. In Thailand, a medical team treating the country’s 19 patients has already reported early success with lopinavir and ritonavir in a small

Wuhan coronavirus: key developments for the week of 2/2/2020

A collection of key developments in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus (nCoV-2019), updated throughout the week for those who just want the signal and not the noise. If there’s something you think we should include, sound off in the comments thread attached to each week’s post. Visit our Wuhan coronavirus status page and learn

Report from Beijing: numbers worse than official count, social media widely censored

As the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to unfold here in China, I have been glued to my cellphone for updates every waking hour. Many valuable posts and video clips get deleted only a few hours after being released online, so people have to make screen shots in order to retweet them and avoid intensifying censorship.

2019-nCoV almost contained in some areas; a new 6.5% fatality rate number; Hubei still in meltdown

Tension over the evolving situation with 2019-nCoV escalated on the global stage in recent days, as countries around the world implemented heightened measures to contain the epidemic, while experts began for the first time to publicly sound the alarm that the new coronavirus might go pandemic. The world faces uncertainty over which of two outcomes