India has been in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic since 25 March. (Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty)
People power: How India will curb outbreak
- India plans to use people power to control the coronavirus outbreak. It cannot test the majority of its 1.3 billion people, so the country has sent thousands of public-health workers into villages, towns and cities to trace and quarantine those who might have had contact with infected people. Epidemiologists say India’s approach could be relevant for countries facing similar challenges — but widespread testing is needed to suppress the virus, or cases will be missed. (Nature | 6 min read)
- US President Donald Trump has criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and said the United States will halt its funding pending a review. The US has contributed more than US$400 million per year to the WHO over the past two years, making it the largest contributor to its roughly US$2.8-billion yearly budget. (Nature | Continuously updated)
- Bats are a key source of human viruses — the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus probably jumped to humans from bats — but not because of anything unusual about the cave cuties. There are just a lot of types of bat. A statistical analysis found that animal groups with more species tend to have more viruses, and consequently, a larger number of viruses that can jump to people. Rodents were the most species-rich order of mammals in the study; they also had the largest number of viruses that had moved to people. (Nature | 4 min read)
- “Immunity after any infection can range from lifelong and complete to nearly nonexistent,” notes epidemiologist and infectious-disease researcher Marc Lipsitch. He lays out the current understanding of how our immune systems respond to other coronaviruses, and how decision makers can work with what little we know about COVID-19 immunity. (The New York Times | 8 min read)
- Online scams, hoaxes and lies are overwhelming valid recommendations and crucial health information on social media, says social-scientist Joan Donovan. She argues for researchers to demand that tech companies become more transparent, accountable and socially beneficial. (Nature | 5 min read)
- Mathematician John Conway, who designed the iconic Game of Life, died aged 82 on 11 April, reportedly of complications arising from COVID-19. His work transcended the boundary between recreational and ‘serious’ maths, turning play into research and vice versa. (Nature | Continuously updated)
Read Nature’s continuously updated selection of the must-read papers and preprints on COVID-19.
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