Project
The Science of COVID-19
Veteran public health journalists from Science magazine explore what science knows—and is learning...
The Science team is producing multiple stories a day exploring the nature of the virus, the course of the disease, potential treatments and vaccines, the patterns of spread around the world, and impacts on society. They are also focusing on the interplay of science and politics that is shaping each country's control efforts.
This Pulitzer Center-supported project enables Science to sustain its core effort and expand it with reporting from Africa, India, Latin America, and other regions where the pandemic is now taking hold, some of which have weak or vulnerable health systems.
Monday, October 5, 2020
‘A Brutal Blow’: A Bill Threatens Dozens of Trust Funds That Support Mexican Science
Rodrigo Pérez Ortega , Inés Gutiérrez Jaber
Mexican scientists clad in lab coats and carrying handmade signs gathered in Mexico City outside the Chamber of Deputies to protest a bill that would terminate 109 trust funds run by public research centers and government institutes. Read Story
How Might President Donald Trump Fare With COVID-19?
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
The bombshell that President Donald Trump tested positive for the pandemic coronavirus prompted a flood of questions. To learn more, ScienceInsider spoke with Neil Schluger, a pulmonary specialist who is chair of the Department of Medicine at New York Medical College. Read Story
Monday, August 25, 2020
New Drool-Based Tests Are Replacing the Dreaded Coronavirus Nasal Swab
Robert F. Service
This month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for two tests that sample saliva instead of nasal fluid, and more innovations are likely after FDA relaxed rules to allow new tests to be adopted more quickly. Read Story
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
COVID-19 Hits U.S. Mink Farms After Ripping Through Europe
Eli Cahan
COVID-19 has now struck mink farms in the United States, too. After farmers in Utah reported a rash of mink deaths, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed the SARS-CoV-2 virus had infected the weasellike mammals. Read Story
Monday, August 17, 2020
Scientists Worried the Pandemic Would Cause Malaria Deaths To Soar. So Far, It Hasn’t Happened
Leslie Roberts
Fears abounded that with clinics overwhelmed by COVID-19, patients would be unable to get treatment for malaria, which kills an estimated 405,000 per year. In the worst case scenario, models projected, malaria deaths could more than double this year. So far, that hasn't happened. Read Story
Friday, August 14, 2020
What Does the COVID-19 Summer Surge Mean for Your Cats and Dogs?
David Grimm
It remains unclear how often cats and dogs become infected with the virus, what their symptoms are, and how likely they are to pass it along to other animals, including us. Yet a handful of studies are starting to provide some answers. Read Story
This Physician Has Battled Epidemics, Quakes, and Poverty in Haiti. Now, She's Taking on COVID-19
Robert Bazell
As the director of a major health care organization in Haiti, Marie Marcelle Deschamps was already stretched thin by the struggles of providing medical help in one of the poorest nations on Earth. Then in late March, COVID-19 arrived. Read Story
Thursday, August 13, 2020
New Zealand Suspects ‘Some Failure at the Border’ After COVID-19 Returns
Dennis Normile
New Zealand officials and scientists are eying a breach in isolation security as the possible cause of the first cases of community transmission in the country in 102 days. Investigators are exploring several possibilities, but experts believe the alternatives—that the virus was circulating undetected or that it entered the country on a freight shipment—are unlikely. Read Story
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
The Pandemic Appears to Have Spared Africa So Far. Scientists Are Struggling to Explain Why
Linda Nordling
Africa seems to have weathered the pandemic relatively well so far, with fewer than one confirmed case for every thousand people and just 23,000 deaths so far. Yet several antibody surveys suggest far more Africans have been infected with the coronavirus—a discrepancy that is puzzling scientists around the continent. Read Story
AI Invents New ‘Recipes’ for Potential COVID-19 Drugs
Robert F. Service
To prevent shortages, researchers have come up with a new way to design synthetic routes to drugs now being tested in some COVID-19 clinical trials, using artificial intelligence (AI) software. Read Story
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Designer Antibodies Could Battle COVID-19 Before Vaccines Arrive
Jon Cohen
While the world is transfixed by the high-stakes race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, an equally crucial competition is heating up to produce targeted antibodies that could provide an instant immunity boost against the virus. Read Story
Once Praised for Taming the Pandemic, Asian-Pacific Nations Worry About New Onslaught
Dennis Normile
Many Asian-Pacific countries have recorded some of the lowest COVID-19 case numbers anywhere, earning praise as models of how to handle the virus. But the sheen is coming off their performance. Many countries see cases ticking up sharply, triggered by complacency among officials, premature relaxation of control measures, and public fatigue with social distancing. Read Story
Why Pregnant Women Face Special Risks From COVID-19
Meredith Wadman
Emerging data suggests that pregnancy appears to make women’s bodies more vulnerable to severe COVID-19. That’s partly because of pregnant women’s uniquely adjusted immune systems, and partly because the coronavirus’ points of attack—the lungs and the cardiovascular system—are already stressed in pregnancy. Read Story
Saturday, August 1, 2020
Groups Protest Exclusion of HIV-Infected People From Coronavirus Vaccine Trials
Jocelyn Kaiser
As large trials get underway to test the vaccines needed to stop the global coronavirus pandemic, one group has realized it is being left out and is not happy: people living with HIV. Read Story
Monday, July 27, 2020
Trump ‘Owes Us an Apology.’ Chinese Scientist at the Center of COVID-19 Origin Theories Speaks Out
Jon Cohen
Shi Zhengli, who heads a group that studies bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in the city in China where the pandemic began, speaks out for the first time against speculation that the virus was engineered in her lab. Read Story
Clinical Trials Rebound After COVID-19 Crash, but Can Enrollment Gains Continue?
Eli Cahan
For the hundreds of thousands of people enrolling in clinical trials every year—and for whom experimental therapies can offer a last hope—a new report provides some welcome news: Enrollment in clinical studies in the United States is on the rebound after disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read Story
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Polio Vaccination Campaigns Restart After Modelers Warn About Risk of ‘Explosive’ Outbreaks
Leslie Roberts
In a sad knock-on effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) abruptly halted all mass vaccination campaigns in March, worried they could inadvertently spread the novel coronavirus. But now, armed with new data and perspective, GPEI and the countries it supports are resuming vaccination campaigns. Read Story
Monday, July 20, 2020
Controversial ‘Human Challenge’ Trials for COVID-19 Vaccines Gain Support
Jon Cohen
Since the early days of the pandemic, some researchers have advocated a fast way to determine whether a COVID-19 vaccine works: Intentionally attempt to infect vaccinated volunteers with the virus, SARS-CoV-2. Ethicists and vaccine scientists alike raised red flags, and the discussion has remained mostly theoretical. But now two key elements are taking shape: a large corps of volunteers willing to take part in a “human challenge” trial, and the well-understood lab-grown virus strains needed for the studies. Read Story
Friday, July 17, 2020
A Former Navy Disaster Specialist Wages War Against COVID-19 on U.S./Mexico Border
Jon Cohen
A former U.S. Navy clinician says he wasn’t fully prepared for what the pandemic has thrown at him and the rest of the staff at a San Diego hospital. Read Story
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Data Secrecy Is Crippling Attempts to Slow COVID-19’s Spread in U.S., Epidemiologists Warn
Charles Piller
Many states are failing to share important information about their COVID-19 cases, which some scientists warn is hampering efforts to identify targeted measures that could stem the spread of SARS-CoV-2 without a full-scale lockdown. Read Story
During the Pandemic, Students Do Field and Lab Work Without Leaving Home
Elizabeth Pennisi
Hundreds of lab and field courses have been forced online by COVID-19, leaving many institutions to face the challenges that come with online learning. Read Story
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
‘It’s a tricky thing.’ COVID-19 cases haven’t soared in Nigeria, but that could change
Jop de Vrieze
So far, sub-Saharan Africa has not faced the extreme numbers of cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus some public health experts feared would occur. Yet the numbers across Africa are ticking up, and Chikwe Ihekweazu, director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, is far from complacent. Read Story
The pandemic virus is slowly mutating. But is it getting more dangerous?
Kai Kupferschmidt
More than 6 months into the pandemic, the virus’ potential to evolve in a nastier direction—or, if we’re lucky, become more benign—is unclear. In part that’s because it changes more slowly than most other viruses, giving virologists fewer mutations to study. But some virologists also raise an intriguing possibility: that SARS-CoV-2 was already well adapted to humans when it burst onto the world stage at the end of 2019, having quietly honed its ability to infect people beforehand. Read Story
Saturday, July 11, 2020
‘Huge Hole’ in COVID-19 Testing Data Makes It Harder to Study Racial Disparities
Kelly Servick
Even as the U.S. testing infrastructure improves, testing remains sparse in many low-income and minority neighborhoods, and race and ethnicity information is missing for about half of reported COVID-19 cases nationwide. Read Story
A WHO-Led Mission May Investigate the Pandemic’s Origin. Here Are the Key Questions to Ask
Jon Cohen
The two-person team from the World Health Organization (WHO) traveling to China to address the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to come home with answers. Rather, the duo—an epidemiologist and an animal health expert whose names have not been released—will discuss with Chinese officials the scope of a larger international mission later, according to a WHO statement. Read Story
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Can Boosting Interferons, the Body's Frontline Virus Fighters, Beat COVID-19?
Meredith Wadman
A small flurry of recent papers suggests the novel coronavirus does some of its deadly work by disabling interferons, powerful proteins that are the body’s own frontline defenders against viral invasion. If so, synthetic interferons given before or soon after infection may tame the virus before it causes serious disease—a welcome possibility that additional recent studies support. Read Story
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
School Openings Across Globe Suggest Ways to Keep Coronavirus at Bay, Despite Outbreaks
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, Gretchen Vogel, Meagan Weiland
Early this spring, school gates around the world slammed shut. However, as weeks turned into months, pediatricians and educators began to voice concern that school closures were doing more harm than good. It was time, a growing chorus said, to bring children back to school. By early June, more than 20 countries had done just that. It was a vast, uncontrolled experiment. Read Story
U.S. Research Cruises Resume, Gingerly
Ian Graber-Stiehl
U.S. research vessels are taking to the sea again after being docked since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read Story
Scientists Scoff at Indian Agency's Plan to Have COVID-19 Vaccine Ready for Use Next Month
Sanjay Kumar
The apparent speed at which an Indian government agency aims to test and approve a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine has created an uproar among scientists both in India, which is increasingly overwhelmed by the new coronavirus, and abroad. Read Story
Monday, July 6, 2020
One U.K. Trial Is Transforming COVID-19 Treatment. Why Haven’t Others Delivered More Results?
Kai Kupferschmidt
On 29 June, University of Oxford clinical scientists Martin Landray and Peter Horby changed how physicians around the world consider treating COVID-19—for the third time in little more than 3 weeks. Read Story
Operation Warp Speed’s Opaque Choices of COVID-19 Vaccines Draw Senate Scrutiny
Jon Cohen
The leaders of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s well-funded project to develop COVID-19 vaccines at record speed, have said they are running a transparent project. But at a Senate subcommittee hearing that focused on Warp Speed, scientists at the front of the effort, after repeated questioning, gave limited answers about the vaccine candidates they have chosen as frontrunners in the race and their selection criteria. Read Story
The Global Aids Meeting, the Woodstock of Science Gatherings, Goes Virtual Amid COVID-19
Jon Cohen
AIDS 2020, the 23rd International AIDS Conference, is but one of slews of scientific meetings that have been upended by COVID-19 and gone online. But this gathering of some 20,000 people has no parallel in the world of medicine or science. Read Story
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
New White House Rules Restrict Use of Grant Funding to Deal With COVID-19 Impacts
Jeffrey Mervis
New rules on how U.S. universities manage federal research grants leave them with less flexibility to cope with the pandemic. Read Story
Just 50% of Americans Plan to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine. Here’s How to Win Over the Rest
Warren Cornwall
Recent polls have found as few as 50% of people in the United States are committed to receiving a vaccine, with another quarter wavering. The CDC is now working on a plan to boost “vaccine confidence” as part of the federal effort to develop a vaccine. Read Story
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
The Line Is Forming for a COVID-19 Vaccine. Who Should Be at the Front?
Jon Cohen
When and if the world has a COVID-19 vaccine, who should get it first? A committee that makes vaccine use recommendations to the CDC wrestled with this question in a virtual meeting, and new data suggested that pregnant women should be given priority as they may have an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Read Story
Friday, June 26, 2020
It’s Safe To Go Back to the Gym—If There’s Little COVID-19 Around, Study Suggests
Cathleen O’Grady
Wondering whether it’s safe to go back to the gym? Norwegian gymgoers may have some good news for you. A study on the risk of coronavirus transmission in Oslo found that people who went to a gym were no more likely to get infected, or sick, than people who didn’t. Norway has reopened its gyms based on the tentative results, which were published as a preprint yesterday and still need to go through peer review. Read Story
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
COVID-19 Cancels Charity Galas and Walks. Science Is Paying the Price
Eli Cahan
Foundations that fund biomedical research in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere are reporting record revenue drops because of the pandemic. One major factor: It has forced them to cancel key fundraising events, including glitzy galas, sponsored walks, and Broadway partnerships. Read Story
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
‘It’s a Nightmare.’ How Brazilian Scientists Became Ensnared in Chloroquine Politics
Lindzi Wessel
Now that several big trials have shown disappointing results, hope has faded that chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine might be miracle drugs against COVID-19. But for one group of researchers in Brazil, the story is far from over. Read Story
Friday, June 19, 2020
Pandemic Vaccines Are About to Face the Real Test
Jon Cohen
The next and most important stage of the COVID-19 vaccine race is about to begin: the large-scale, placebo-controlled, human trials needed to prove which of the more than 135 candidates are safe and effective. Read Story
Can Phone Apps Slow the Spread of the Coronavirus?
Kelly Servick
Health departments around the world are betting on technology to help stem the stealthy spread of the coronavirus: cellphone apps that aim to identify and alert those who recently came into contact with an infected person. But experts warn that an app can't replace the use of human contact tracers. Read Story
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Source of Beijing’s Big New COVID-19 Outbreak Is Still a Mystery
Dennis Normile
Bejing has locked down some residential compounds, closed all schools, and canceled hundreds of flights since the confirmation of a COVID-19 case on June 11. The case ended a run of 55 days without a reported local transmission. Read Story
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
‘We’ve Got to Be Able to Move More Quickly.’ the Pandemic Reality of COVID-19 Clinical Trials
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
The novel coronavirus has upended the world of clinical research, with scientists under pressure to identify effective treatments for COVID-19 and vaccines to prevent new infections. More than 22,000 papers on the virus have been published this year, and more than 2000 trials are underway. Read Story
A Cheap Steroid Is the First Drug Shown to Reduce Death in COVID-19 Patients
Kai Kupferschmidt
After months of dire news about the spread of the novel coronavirus and a mounting global death toll, a glimmer of hope arrived today: Researchers announced that dexamethasone, a cheap, widely available corticosteroid, significantly reduced deaths of severely sick COVID-19 patients in a major clinical trial. Read Story
Monday, June 15, 2020
FDA Just Gave a Thumbs Down to Trump’s Favorite COVID-19 Drugs
John Travis
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine sulfate (HCQ) and chloroquine phosphate (CQ) to treat COVID-19. Read Story
HIV and TB Increase Death Risk From COVID-19, Study Finds—but Not by Much
Linda Nordling
Living with HIV or active tuberculosis (TB) increases a person’s likelihood of dying from COVID-19, preliminary data from South Africa show. However, the effect is small compared with other known risk factors such as old age and diabetes. Read Story
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Could a Global ‘Observatory’ of Blood Help Stop the Next Pandemic?
Robert Bazell
The antibodies in blood samples from around the world could reveal where previously identified pathogens are popping up and where new ones are emerging. Read Story
Friday, June 12, 2020
Pandemic Upends Colombia’s Controversial Drug War Plan to Resume Aerial Spraying
Kata Karáth
The Colombian government has been unable to conduct court-ordered consultations with communities that would be affected by the renewed aerial spraying campaign. The sprayings seek to destroy coca crops and Colombia's cocaine production. Read Story
Coronavirus Forces United States, United Kingdom to Cancel Antarctic Field Research
Paul Voosen
The coronavirus pandemic had already canceled one summer field research season. Now it has come for another: the Antarctic summer. Read Story
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Coronavirus Rips Through Dutch Mink Farms, Triggering Culls to Prevent Human Infections
Martin Enserink
SARS-CoV-2 has attacked mink farms in the Netherlands and the Dutch government worries infected mink could become a viral reservoir that could cause new outbreaks in humans. Read Story
Three Big Studies Dim Hopes That Hydroxychloroquine Can Treat or Prevent COVID-19
Kai Kupferschmidt
Through the fog of alleged misconduct, hope, hype, and politicization that surrounds hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted as a COVID-19 treatment, a scientific picture is now emerging. Read Story
Monday, June 8, 2020
Who's to Blame? These Three Scientists Are at the Heart of the Surgisphere COVID-19 Scandal
Charles Piller
Three unlikely collaborators are at the heart of the fast-moving COVID-19 research scandal which led to retractions last week by The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Read Story
Saturday, June 6, 2020
Abortion Opponents Protest COVID-19 Vaccines’ Use of Fetal Cells
Meredith Wadman
Catholic leaders and anitbortion activists in the U.S. and Canada are urging their governments to invest in vaccines that do not rely on human fetal cell lines. Read Story
This Cow’s Antibodies Could Be the Newest Weapon Against COVID-19
Mitch Leslie
A biotech company in South Dakota has created genetically modified dairy cows capable of producing anitbodies to subdue human diseases. Read Story
As Pandemic Pounds U.S. Universities, Federal Support Helps Their Labs Stay Afloat
Jeffrey Mervis
Federal funding is still flowing into sponsored research at universities across the nation, allowing labs to continue work despite institutions' financial setbacks. Read Story
Two Elite Medical Journals Retract Coronavirus Papers Over Data Integrity Questions
Charles Piller, Kelly Servick
A paper retracted by The Lancet claimed that hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug touted by President Donald Trump, could seriously harm COVID-19 patients. The pandemic has rushed the editorial process at some journals seeking to publish COVID-19 research. Read Story
Friday, June 5, 2020
Top U.S. Scientists Left out of White House Selection of COVID-19 Vaccine Short List
Jon Cohen
Operation Warp Speed has selected five experimental COVID-19 vaccines to fast-track through testing, but there was little transparency behind the selection process according to scientists on the vaccine committee overseeing clinical trials. Read Story
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Why Coronavirus Hits Men Harder: Sex Hormones Offer Clues
Meredith Wadman
Male hormones appear to boost the coronavirus's ability to get inside cells, creating a greater risk of severe illness and death. Read Story
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Scientists Rush to Defend Venezuelan Colleagues Threatened Over Coronavirus Study
Rodrigo Pérez Ortega
A high-level Venezuelan official suggested the Venezuelan Academy of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (ACFIMAN) should be subject to raids following the academy's publication of a report disproving the government had "flattened the curve." Ready Story
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
A Mysterious Company’s Coronavirus Papers in Top Medical Journals May Be Unraveling
Kelly Servick, Martin Enserink
A little-known data analytics company showed that antimalarial drugs touted by the White House as possible COVID-19 treatments looked to be not just ineffective, but downright deadly. Read Story
Blood Vessel Attack Could Trigger Coronavirus’ Fatal ‘Second Phase’
Catherine Matacic
Autopsy results showed pathologists that their patients were suffering because the coronavirus had targeted their blood vessels. Read Story
NIH-Halted Study Unveils Its Massive Analysis of Bat Coronaviruses
Jon Cohen, Kai Kupferschmidt
An international team of scientists has published what it calls the most comprehensive analysis ever done on bat coronaviruses. Read Story
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Shuttered Natural History Museums Fight for Survival Amid COVID-19 ‘Heartbreak’
Elizabeth Pennisi
Museums’ reliance on revenue from ticket sales and events makes them among the first scientific institutions to feel the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read Story
Yemen Was Facing the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis. Then the Coronavirus Hit
Richard Stone
Perhaps no country is more vulnerable to COVID-19’s depredations than Yemen. Even before the virus’ arrival, the country was grappling with “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” as a result of a civil war now grinding into its sixth year, says Jens Laerke, a spokesperson at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Read Story
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Can Plasma From COVID-19 Survivors Help Save Others?
Kai Kupferschmidt
Infectious disease specialists are arguing that one effective treatment might already be at hand: the blood plasma of people who have recovered from the disease, rich in antibodies against the virus. Read Story
As India’s Lockdown Ends, Exodus From Cities Risks Spreading COVID-19 Far and Wide
Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar
A shortage of hospital beds and poor coordination has overwhelmed public hospitals and left authorities scrambling to ramp up capacity in Mumbai and other cities. Similarly dramatic scenes may play out in other parts of India. Read Story
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Japan Ends Its COVID-19 State of Emergency
Dennis Normille
Japan yesterday declared at least a temporary victory in its battle with COVID-19, and it triumphed by following its own playbook. It drove down the number of daily new cases to near target levels of 0.5 per 100,000 people with voluntary and not very restrictive social distancing and without large-scale testing. Read Story
Merck, one of Big Pharma’s Biggest Players, Reveals its COVID-19 Vaccine and Therapy Plans
Jon Cohen
Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has been conspicuously absent from the race to develop COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. No longer. The company this morning announced it has cut deals to develop and manufacture two different COVID-19 vaccines and a much-discussed experimental antiviral compound that is already in early clinical trials. Read Story
Monday, May 25, 2020
Study Tells ‘Remarkable Story’ About COVID-19’s Deadly Rampage Through a South African Hospital
Linda Nordling
On 9 March, a patient who had recently traveled to Europe and had symptoms of COVID-19 visited the emergency department of St Augustine’s, a private hospital in Durban, South Africa. Eight weeks later, 39 patients and 80 staff linked to the hospital had been infected, and 15 patients had died—fully half the death toll in KwaZulu-Natal province at that time. Read Story
Friday, May 22, 2020
Doubts Greet $1.2 Billion Bet by United States on a Coronavirus Vaccine by October
Jon Cohen
Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s bid to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine faster than any previous vaccine, is both turning heads and raising eyebrows with a major new investment that promises to shave weeks off its already ambitious timeline. Read Story
Coronavirus Antigen Tests: Quick and Cheap, but Too Often Wrong?
Robert F. Service
After a painfully slow rollout of diagnostic testing for active coronavirus infections across the country, some 400,000 people a day in the United States may now receive such a test, estimates suggest. Public health experts have raised questions about the vitality of these tests, however. Read Story
How Sweden Wasted a ‘Rare Opportunity’ to Study Coronavirus in Schools
Gretchen Vogel
Bucking a global trend, Sweden has kept day care centers and schools through ninth grade open since COVID-19 emerged, without any major adjustments to class size, lunch policies, or recess rules. That made the country a perfect natural experiment about schools’ role in the viral spread that many others could have learned from as they reopen schools or ponder when to do so. Read Story
‘The House Was on Fire.’ Top Chinese Virologist on How China and U.S. Have Met the Pandemic
Jon Cohen
Virologist Shao Yiming, chief expert on AIDS at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), sees the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of HIV. That background has given Shao a broad perspective when it comes to seeing the similarities—and differences—in how nations, including China and the United States, have responded to the current pandemic. Read Story
