The World Health Organization today declared 2019-nCoV a public health emergency of international concern. This is the sixth such designation since 2009; earlier emergencies included the swine flu in 2009, Ebola in 2014 and 2019, polio in 2014 and Zika in 2016.
For ongoing and up-to-date coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak, check out this Twitter list curated by Bara Vaida, AHCJ’s core topic leader on infectious diseases.
The list includes 26 people who are regularly and responsibly tweeting about the outbreak and includes the World Health Organization’s director-general, journalists who have been covering infectious disease topics for years, such as infectious disease scientists and doctors, President Obama’s former Ebola czar, a National Institutes of Health special assistant for scientific projects, infectious disease bloggers and others.
If an AHCJ member has a suggestion of someone who should be added, please reach out to me here.
A reminder that our infectious disease core topic page has many resources for members, including our latest post, “Use caution when reporting on pandemic potential of Wuhan coronavirus,” and several tip sheets for covering an infectious disease outbreak.
The number of outbreaks the world has experienced over the past decade shows how much infectious diseases threaten global public health, even though they are no longer a leading cause of mortality.
