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COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak
Odisha, in eastern India, has closed theatres, swimming pools, schools and other public spaces in order to stem the spread of coronavirus.Credit: STR/NurPhoto/Getty
• US President Donald Trump called the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency on Friday afternoon. This gives the administration broad authority in its response to the disease, including access to up to US$50 billion in federal funds to combat the epidemic. (Nature | Continuously updated)
• Because COVID-19 testing isn’t available to everyone, the coronavirus is spreading to some extent under the radar. Public-health leaders from the World Health Organization, the US Centers for D rch funder Wellcome explain how officials and researchers estimate the size of local outbreaks from incomplete data. (Nature | 6 min read)
• What does ‘flattening the curve’ really look like? A Washington Post article runs a new simulation every time you view the page to show, in simplified form, how quarantine and social distancing affect the spread of infectious disease. (The Washington Post | 5 min read)
• Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong are very different places that each managed to quash COVID-19 transmission, in their own ways, without draconian measures. Epidemiologists Benjamin Cowling and Wey Wen Lim explain in detail how it was done. (The New York Times | 9 min read)
• The United Kingdom’s strategy for suppressing COVID-19 has come under fire after the government announced it would focus on building up ‘herd immunity’. The government has now backed away from the phrase, which is usually associated with vaccination and seemed to imply the intention that the majority of the British population be infected. The communication misstep has caused confusion, say some scientists, who have called on the government to share the evidence behind its plans. (The Atlantic | 9 min read)
Read the latest coronavirus news, continuously updated on Nature.
News
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other 12‐step programmes are some of the most effective methods for people who want to give up drinking. A systematic review of 27 studies found that AA and similar approaches also led to lower health-care costs for participants compared with other methods, such as cognitive behavioural therapy. “The fact that A.A. is free and so widely available is also good news,” says psychiatrist John Kelly. “It’s the closest thing in public health we have to a free lunch.”
The New York Times | 5 min read
Reference: Cochrane Library review article
The fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll displayed at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC are — as long suspected — fake. All but one of the 16 fragments were found to be made from leather, rather than parchment like the real scrolls, says an expert analysis commissioned by the museum. The fakes were purchased by the billionaire Hobby Lobby family that bankrolls the museum. The family has in recent years paid millions in fines related to smuggled artefacts.
National Geographic | 15 min read
Reference: Museum of the Bible report
Features & opinion
The UK government is racing ahead with plans for an Advanced Research Projects Agency, modelled on the high-risk, high-reward US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Such freedom comes with responsibility, argues a Nature editorial: you can’t reap the rewards of high-risk research without investing in meticulous preparation and verification.
Science has become a weapon in the battle between back-country sports enthusiasts and conservationists over the plan to close thousands of hectares of Idaho forest to snowmobiling. Both groups share a love of the wolverines that roam the snowy mountains, but few agree on what the evidence says about how to protect the enigmatic animals.
High Country News | 9 min read