Handling the US outbreak requires a look at what’s working for the rest of the world – and our own history.
Coronaviruses get their name from the crown, or corona, of spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, as seen on this illustration of a highly magnified virus.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
By isolating SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, researchers can now work on developing tests, treatments and vaccines in Canada.
An employee in Nantong, China, checks the production of chloroquine phosphate, an old drug for the treatment of malaria.
Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images
A medicinal chemist addresses questions about chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: what it is, whether it is effective against COVID-19 and whether it can treat and/or prevent this disease.
Stray cows rest on a New Delhi street during a one-day civil curfew to combat coronavirus. Cattle may have been central to a coronavirus outbreak in 1890.
Yawar Nazir/Getty Images
Peter Alagona, University of California, Santa Barbara
The value that bats provide to humans by pollinating crops and eating insects is far greater than harm from virus transmission – which is mainly caused by human actions.
If Google Trends is any guide, many Australians are wondering what role phones and mail or package deliveries may play in the risk of coronavirus transmission.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Wes Mountain, The Conversation
The regulations clearly proscribe some activities but are silent on others. So we asked two infectious disease researchers to reflect on some common scenarios.
It’s hard to adopt a set of hard and fast rules with the advice changing so quickly. So it’s important you have a set of evidence-based principles to guide your decision-making about social contact.
There are 20,000 FDA approved drugs. One of them might fight COVID-19, if we can find it.
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Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Among the more than 20,000 drugs approved by the FDA, there may be some that can treat COVID-19. A team at the University of California, San Francisco, is identifying possible candidates.
The origin of the Covid-19 virus is still unclear: a cave, the forest…
Michal Ico/Unsplash
The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic is undergoing extensive genetic analysis around the world to understand its origin and evolution.
The coronavirus, like many infectious diseases, can live and spread on inanimate objects in the world around us. An epidemiologist explains how and gives some advice on how to minimize the risk.
There is no evidence that the coronavirus has evolved into a deadlier strain. It is almost certainly less lethal than initially reported, but that might mean there are more cases than we realised.
A University of Washington Medical Center set up a drive-through testing center on March 13, 2020.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
A virus testing lab director explains how the U.S. fell behind in the need for broad coronavirus testing.
In response to the Covid-19 epidemic, on March 12, Argentina’s Racing Club and Peru’s Alianza Lima played a match without the public.
Agustin Marcarian/AFP
As the new coronavirus has spread around the world, sporting matches and events have been staged behind closed doors, postponed and increasingly cancelled outright.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation; Molly Glassey, The Conversation, and Wes Mountain, The Conversation
What do you need to know about COVID-19 and coronavirus? We asked our readers for their top questions and sought answers from two of Australia’s leading virus and vaccine experts.
Coronavirus and COVID-19: your questions answered by virus experts
The Conversation90.3 MB(download)
What do you need to know about COVID-19 and coronavirus? We asked our readers for their top questions and sought answers from two of Australia's leading virus and vaccine experts.
Soap and hot water is the best way to clean your hands, but sanitizer is a good second choice.
AP Photo/Ric Feld
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity