Guide: Straight answers on coronavirus

     Chinese medical officials say that a drug developed by a subsidiary of Japanese company Fujifilm seems to be effective in treating the coronavirus, CNBC reported. The drug was developed to treat a new strain of the flu. Clinical trials of 340 patients in China showed that the drug is “clearly effective in treatment” of COVID-19, said  Zhang Xinmin, director of China’s National Center for Biotechnology Development. 
     Meanwhile, however, much about the virus and the response to it remains clouded in confusion. Some governors have called for schools to stop classes until the end of the spring break. Others say there will be no more school until next fall -- and maybe later.
    Some workers are staying home for two weeks. But there's no guarantee that the threat will end in 14 days, and most businesses acknowledge that they can't stop work indefinitely. And President Donald Trump famously predicted that the virus would go away by April. More recently, he said it would be around until July or August.
    Not only that, just about everyone has a resource page on the coronavirus.
    It's a maddening mishmash of information and disinformation. But websites affiliated with notable health institutions, medical journals and universities can set the record straight. Here are some examples:

    Start your research with medical journals. If the jargon is infuriating, universities, hospitals and government entities employ journalists who explain the research. 

• The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UCLA and Princeton University on how long the coronavirus is stable on surfaces. An accessible explainer piece can be found on the  National Institutes of Health website.
• The website of the Journal of the American Medical Association contains a graphic on the spread of the virus in Italy, including the fatality rate by age.
• The Johns Hopkins University and Medicine website offers a Coronavirus Resource Center. The home page includes a running count of cases worldwide and more.
• The BMJ (The British Medical Journal) website has a page devoted to the latest news and research on the virus.

    The CDC tackles all aspects of the virus. 
    The website is comprehensive, with information on how to protect yourself, how to spot symptoms and even how to create a household plan.   

     The World Health Organization's website includes research done on the virus: Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
      The mission's aim was to "rapidly inform national (China) and international planning on next steps in the response to the ongoing outbreak." Scientists and medical practitioners pooled information. The report, published in February, recommended that countries with imported cases of the virus should "prioritize active, exhaustive case finding and immediate testing and isolation, painstaking contact tracing and rigorous quarantine of close contacts."
      The organization has another publication of interest to researchers, Managing Epidemics: Key Facts about Major Deadly Diseases. Published in 2018, it offered accurate, if horrifying, predictions. Here's an example: "Given the effects of globalization, the intense mobility of human populations, and the relentless urbanization, it is likely that the next emerging virus will also spread fast and far. It is impossible to predict the nature of this virus or its source, or where it will start spreading. But we can say, with a high degree of certainty, that when it comes, there will be (a) an initial delay in recognizing it; (b) a serious impact on travel and trade; (c) a public reaction that includes anxiety, or even panic and confusion, and (d) this will be aided and abetted by media coverage."

      Related:

      Resources: Why is it called coronavirus?

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